Greater Toronto Catholic Parent Network

The provincial government has sent in a new supervisor to run the troubled Toronto Catholic school board.

Richard Alway, former president of St. Michael's College at the University of Toronto, takes over from Norbert Hartmann, who resigned Friday night after a raucous 14 months on the job along with his associate Norm Forma.

Their letter of resignation says they implemented new policies for trustee expenses, cut the cost of governance and appointed a new senior leadership team.

"The next phase of supervision is equally important. Engagement with, and trust in, the board must be enhanced among students, parents and ratepayers," says their letter of resignation to Education Minister Kathleen Wynne.

Wynne said she accepted the resignation of the two supervisors, both long-time veterans of Ontario's school system, who "basically resigned because they felt they had done what they had been asked to do – to set a two-year budget plan to eliminate the deficit.

"They felt it was time to move on to the next phase – in which we'll be looking for a better sense these trustees can work as a cohesive unit – and it may be a good idea to have someone who is able to step back a bit for this process."

Wynne said she had no reason to blame their exit on recent backlash from parents upset at the cancellation of the popular Arrowsmith program for learning disabled children, although both Hartmann and Forma have been named in a recent legal challenge launched by parents upset that they cancelled the successful program with little notice, claiming proper procedures were not followed.

Trustee Rob Davis called the resignations "shocking," but said both Hartmann and Forma have "expressed many times that they thought they were here longer than originally anticipated."

He said both "have done a lot of work, and have contributed a great amount to Catholic education – not just during supervision but during their previous lives at the board."

Davis said the board is a big organization, and not easy to manage, and added that the two may have "fallen down a bit in handling parents," which elected politicians normally do.

Wynne told the Star that trustee Angela Kennedy will be asked to serve as chair. She was elected by trustees at a meeting last January in an 8-4 vote. Hartmann, however – appalled by one trustee swearing at another and a crass, verbal confrontation in front of staff and spectators – said the board would go without a chair for the time being.

Hartmann and Forma were appointed in June 2008 to run the scandal-plagued Toronto Catholic District School Board. At the time, trustees failed to balance their budget as required by the province, and were still reeling from allegations of misspending.

They, however, have not been immune from criticism. Hartmann has come under fire for a perceived conflict of interest, given his wife and daughters are teachers at the board, as well as a lack of consultation with both parents and the Catholic community.

They also cancelled a parent-trustee meeting scheduled for the board tonight, saying it would be confusing because trustees have no decision-making power.

Wynne said Alway is "very erudite and knowledgeable and someone who will be able to handle the interpersonal issues at this board.

"My overarching concern is that this board get itself together and back on track; there still seems to be a lot of internal wrangling."

It's really a "time out" for a whole level of government.

A suspension. A red card.

A two-year trip to the political penalty box, where elected players watch from the sidelines as high-priced stand-ins call the shots.

However you describe the Queen's Park takeover of the troubled Toronto Catholic District School Board last year, it's a surreal scenario almost unheard of anywhere else in public life, where one level of government grabs the reins of another until it agrees to behave.

Now, with yesterday's surprise switch in who's holding those reins – the two government-appointed supervisors suddenly resigned together – plus ongoing trustee shenanigans over whether they can even hold a meeting, the situation, to some, is almost a farce.

What began as a scandal, with Catholic trustees getting caught billing taxpayers for Caribbean holidays, lingerie, mini-bars and sun lamps, has never really calmed down, despite the fact it led to trustees being stripped of their powers.

In the latest drama yesterday, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne named Catholic university scholar Richard Alway to replace the two veteran educators who resigned as board supervisors this weekend.

"The whole process is flawed – you go from having dysfunctional elected trustees to having supervisors who make decisions in private with nobody to keep their eyes on them, nobody to balance them off," said ratepayer Michael Baillargeon, whose conflict-of-interest charges against trustee Oliver Carroll caused the former board chair to be removed from office.

"The trustees are out of power, but they're still there, too – even though they won't have the chance to govern again until the fall of 2010, when their term is up," said Baillargeon.

"They should all have resigned. They've been an embarrassment to Catholic education."

Instead, the Ontario Education Act says if a school board fails to balance the books, the province can send in a supervisor to do it for them.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne named Norbert Hartmann and Norm Forma 14 months ago to clean shop, set new spending guidelines and wipe out the deficit, something they said could take two years.

It's something Queen's Park has done with defiant boards from Toronto to Peel Region.

Although trustees keep drawing their salary – the 12 Catholic trustees in Toronto still earn about $18,000 a year each, run a home office, keep their board BlackBerry with a limit of $215 a month and can be reimbursed for mileage – they are forbidden from making any decisions that involve spending money.

Even under takeover, some Catholic trustees railed against the limits of power.

When a small group was told it couldn't hold a meeting last week at the Catholic school board offices to hear concerns from parent groups, it booked the boardroom at the nearby public school board instead for a meeting last night.

But within hours, public board chair John Campbell pulled the plug on the meeting, saying he didn't want its headquarters to be used "for the pretense of a meeting that Catholic trustees have been told they cannot hold."

Disappointed Catholic trustee Rob Davis is one of five who were pushing for the public meeting, and he chose to attend a parent group meeting last night instead at the Catholic school board office.

Although Wynne denied asking the public board to block the Catholic trustees from using their meeting room, she noted it could have confused parents even more.

"Supervision is meant as a last resort. It's not something that makes me happy, but the fact that the province has total responsibility over the finances of a board means it's a necessary tool," Wynne said.

To Catholic trustee John Del Grande, the cost of one new supervisor will be half that of the previous two, and he hopes an outsider may bring a fresh pair of eyes to the troubled board.

"A fresh face, and a fresh perspective, will reset things."

With files from Kristin Rushowy