Alway to recommend returning powers to Toronto Catholic trustees

TORONTO - On the heels of a $2-million budget surplus, the Toronto Catholic District School Board should soon be out of supervision, provincially appointed supervisor Richard Alway announced at the board's inaugural meeting Dec. 8.

Alway said having a balanced budget is one of the steps that will kick-start the return of decision-making powers to the elected members of the board, which has been under provincial supervision since 2009. He added that he would soon be submitting a report to Ontario's education minister to recommend that local powers to be restored to the board. This could happen as early as January, he said.

The board faced a challenging period under supervision, after news broke of trustee misspending by members of the previous board.

But this new board of trustees, with six incumbents and six new trustees chosen in the October election, has shown that they can work together, Alway told The Register.

At the meeting, the elections of Ann Andrachuk as chair and Jo-Ann Davis as vice-chair at a Dec. 1 caucus meeting were confirmed. Andrachuk told about 300 people in attendance that she was "extremely optimistic about the future of the Toronto Catholic District School Board."

“This is a new day for the board," she said.

“You can all be assured that the Toronto Catholic District School Board will be a model of accountability and transparency where ratepayers and parents' voices will be heard, and no child will be left behind.”  

Toronto Auxiliary Bishop William McGrattan led a prayer service before the swearing-in ceremony.

The Catholic school system, McGrattan told the trustees, is a blessing.

"It is a place where faith is nourished, lives are healed, transformed, only because of one blessing, and it is the blessing of faith. Parents, teachers, trustees, we are all stewards of this blessing and we are asked to pass that along to the next generation," McGrattan said.

During the ceremony, trustees declared their commitment to “be faithful to the teachings of the Church, and express our fidelity to the primacy of the Pope and the authority of the magisterium.”