Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra’s Nov. 13 announcement marked a significant step in a broader provincial plan to rebuild the public responsiveness of school boards while preparing to phase out elected trustees.

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Soon, all school boards will be required to establish Student and Family Support Offices to give parents and guardians a clear, effective avenue for resolving concerns about their child’s education. The aim is to speed up problem solving while restoring public trust in a system widely seen as unresponsive.

“We’re going to continue overhauling an outdated school board governance model,” Calandra declared, “so that more resources go into classrooms, teachers have better support and students have the best chance to succeed.”

One thing is evident: Ontario’s Doug Ford government has no intention of repeating Nova Scotia’s 2018 decision to simply abolish its elected English-language school boards and hand full control over to regional superintendents — a move that left local schools and parents without any meaningful public voice at the school or regional level.

Seven years on, Ontario........

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