Cut in number of Toronto school trustees raises concerns over impact on students and parents

By MATTHEW STEPHENS

Local Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustees say the provincial government’s decision to reduce the number of positions by half will negatively impact public school students.

“Overall, this move by the Minister will not improve outcomes for students and is not based on governance or education best practices,” said Michelle Aarts, TDSB trustee for Beaches-East York. “Minister Paul A. Calandra is decreasing the ability of the TDSB to respond to local concerns and that directly impacts family engagement in education.”

Late last month, several days before candidate registrations opened for the 2026 municipal elections, the TDSB released a map of their new electoral wards, reducing the number of trustee positions from 22 to 12.

The latest change comes as part of Bill 101 (Putting Student Achievement First Act, 2026), provincial legislation aimed towards restructuring school board governance.

Aarts believes the decision was a political move intended to “silence” parents advocating for improvements to the education system.

“I believe the changes to TDSB are based on partisan politics and are intended to silence the advocacy of Toronto parents,” Aarts told Beach Metro Community News. “Bill 101 negatively impact the ability of parents and community members to have a say in education.”

Of the 72 school boards across Ontario, The TDSB is the only one currently exceeding the province’s new 12-trustee cap.

But Aarts said exceeding that cap is necessary for the TDSB to adequately represent a higher number of schools compared to other boards across the province.

“Trustees in the TDSB already represent more schools and students than most school boards have in total (there are 26 in Beaches-East York and 33 in Toronto Danforth),” said Aarts.

“Toronto students and families already have significantly less representation than students elsewhere in Ontario. Bill 101 will double the number of students and schools that Toronto trustees must represent, while cutting compensation for the role by 60 per cent.”

In addition to reducing trustees, Bill 101 will also cap salaries for the position, establish a CEO as head employee of the school board, and grant the Ministry of Education extended power over communications.

Toronto-Danforth TDSB trustee Sara Erhardt said the recent changes to school board oversight will shift more power and money to higher levels of management.

“These changes will add more top-level bureaucracy to the education system and do nothing to fund staff and programs in our local schools,” said Erhardt in an email to Beach Metro Community News.

“While local schools are being told they’ll need to share vice principals and cut teaching positions, this government is paying supervisors $2,000/day and now also requiring both a CEO and a CedO for every school board.”

Compiled with other financial and staffing issues, Aarts said TDSB trustees are losing their ability to manage parents’ concerns.

“Trustees already have very little compensation,” explained Aarts. “The reduction in elected representation in the TDSB is compounded by the reduction in staffing in the Minister’s Student & Parent support office. The SPSO has less than half the staff to respond to needs compared to what the TDSB had before Ministry supervision.”

Erhardt told Beach Metro Community News that she will continue to fight against Premier Doug Ford’s efforts to “gut the public education system in Toronto,” with his imposed supervisor positions across school boards.

“For now, I’m focused on fighting the cuts to area schools and ending supervision. As it stands both the Toronto public and Catholic school boards still have supervision orders in place. Elected trustees can’t govern until these supervision orders are lifted,” said Erhardt. “Doug Ford and his government need to end supervision before everyone goes to the polls this fall, and allow democratically elected school trustees to govern from day one.”

Aarts said she would not be running for trustee in the upcoming 2026 municipal election on Oct. 26, but that she was also “not willing” to leave the role open to governmental appointment.

“I had not planned to run for trustee. My goal was always to serve two terms and then help someone get elected who is dedicated to public education and good governance and believes in fully inclusive and equitable education,” said Aarts.

“However, I do not know yet who will be willing to run for trustee in 2026 and I am not willing to leave the role ‘at risk’ or unfilled. I can’t imagine a worse outcome than partisan political appointees governing education.”

The City of Toronto’s elections website has the TDSB set up under a 12-ward system for the Oct. 26 vote.

Locally, the former TDSB wards of Beaches-East York and Scarborough Southwest have now been joined into one electoral area called Ward 10.

The former TDSB ward of Toronto-Danforth has been joined with the former Toronto Centre and Spadina-Fort York wards to create an electoral area known as Ward 5.

So far, according to the city’s election website, no candidate has registered to run in the TDSB’s Ward 10. In the TDSB’s Ward 5, David Gulyas is the only registered candidate so far.