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| Education Minister Liz Sandals, left, with veteran educator Margaret Wilson, announce recommendations and reforms to the troubled TDSB on Thursday. |
Sandals also has ordered the board to drop the salary of education director Donna Quan to $272,000 from $289,000 because it violates the province's wage freeze, even though trustees voted earlier this week to keep it the same. Wilson also criticized Quan for not having made her contract public to former Chair Mari Rutka, and for micro-managing staff in a way that “does not treat them as professionals.”
In her 34-page report, released Thursday, Wilson said too many staff, from principals to senior officials, said they were intimidated by certain interfering trustees who considered themselves virtual “city councillors” rather than the part-time hands-off overseers trustees should be under the Education Act.
Sandals said she found the report “troubling” and “appalling,” especially to reports that some staff told Wilson they feared their superiors were monitoring their emails and even phone calls – and some turned to using private emails and phones for their own protection.
Even Wilson said she began using private emails to announce her upcoming visit to a school, to limit the communication to those for whom it was intended.
Said Wilson: “I was deeply disturbed by the acute level of distress which was apparent among many of the (board) professionals who spoke with me . . . some were in tears . . . they deserve better than a culture of fear.” (more...)
Review blames ‘interfering’ trustees for creating ‘culture of fear’ at Toronto District School Board
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