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 Exiled Catholic trustees hold their own meeting
August 19, 2009
Kristin Rushowy
Education Reporter

Toronto's exiled Catholic trustees, who have been out of power for more than a year now, are holding their own board meeting – in their old stomping ground, no less.

Trustees John Del Grande and Rob Davis have booked the boardroom at the headquarters of the Toronto Catholic District School Board for a meeting Monday and are hoping that fellow trustees, parents and the public will attend.

Their decisions won't be enforceable, but Del Grande said it is important to show trustees are working together and to give parents a place to be heard.

Del Grande said trustees can listen to parent concerns and make recommendations to the ministry supervision team.

"We have to account for our time," he said. "We are getting our full paycheque and we've heard commentaries that some (trustees) ... are more, or less, accessible.

"It's a good idea to get in front of our constituents, and create a formal body to recognize their concerns."

The trustees are calling themselves the Association of Catholic Trustees and have set up a website, tcs-trustees.org.

They were stripped of their powers in June 2008 amid a spending scandal and after their failure to balance the budget.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne sent in a supervision team headed by Norbert Hartmann to run the board.

Hartmann is widely expected to continue in that role until the next municipal election in 2010.

During his monthly meetings, trustees have no input and sit in the gallery alongside members of the public.

Because the boardroom has been reconfigured, trustees won't be able to sit in their old seats, Del Grande added
Catholic trustees can't meet at board HQ

August 19, 2009
Kristin Rushowy
Education Reporter

Toronto's Catholic trustees have been given the boot by provincial supervisor Norbert Hartmann, who says they can't hold a meeting at board headquarters as planned Monday evening.

"Under supervision, trustees cannot meet as a board and have no decision-making power," said the letter from Hartmann to Trustee John Del Grande, who helped organize the meeting with Trustee Rob Davis.

"We are concerned that some stakeholders may be confused about the nature of the meeting you are planning and the role of trustees while under supervision."

Hartmann was sent in by the provincial government more than a year ago to head a team running the Toronto Catholic District School Board after trustees were stripped of their power for failing to balance the budget, and amid revelations of outrageous spending.

Del Grande and Davis say they had the approval of the director's office and permits department to meet with parents Monday evening in the boardroom at board headquarters.

They had told parents it was a chance for them to air concerns, and that the trustees present would only be able to make recommendations to the supervision team.

Hartmann suggests the trustees now apply to the board's permits department to book space in a school.

Del Grande says he is shocked by the letter, and noted the board building is a taxpayer-owned facility with parking and other resources needed for a public meeting.

"It is clear (to parents) that we are operating as a trustee group" and not on behalf of the board, Del Grande said. The trustees are calling themselves the Association of Catholic Trustees and have set up a website, tcs-trustees.org.

Del Grande said he will appeal to Hartmann and possibly the education minister to allow them to meet as planned.

"It is essentially a parent-trustee meeting.....there's nothing sinister about it," he said.


Catholic trustees want to meet

By DON PEAT, SUN MEDIA

Last Updated: 17th August 2009, 11:29am

After almost a year of wandering in the wilderness, embattled Toronto Catholic trustees are planning to meet at the board office but still without any decision-making power.

Trustees John Del Grande and Rob Davis are rallying their colleagues for next Monday's meeting. If they pull it off, it will be the first public meeting of trustees since the provincial supervisor ordered them into the corner to take a timeout in January.

Since then trustees have been forced to watch the supervisor's monthly public meetings from the gallery.

While the trustees can't meet as the Toronto Catholic District School Board, the activities planned by the trustees running the group dubbed the "Association of Catholic School Trustees," sound similar to a board meeting.

Del Grande said the group meetings will hear parent or community delegations, briefings from board staff and receive reports from trustee committees. The committee could also make group resolutions on matters before the supervision team or items of concerns to the trustees or the community.

Education Minister Kathleen Wynne stripped the trustees of their powers in June 2008 after months of reporting by the Sun on trustees office expense accounts and trustees' failure to balance the board's budget.

In May trustees tried to apologize for their scandals in a 37-page report to supervisor Norbert Hartmann. Entitled Moving Forward Together, the mea culpa also included a road map on how trustees say they'll work cooperatively together.

Del Grande said the "minimal response" to that submission has forced trustees to take action.

"It is clear, now is the time for trustees to undertake this next step to move forward together," he stated in a release. "Our hope is to give parents and the community a public voice through their trustee and demonstrate that their trustees continue to be here to work and act on their behalf even if our corporate decision making powers have been seized by the Minister of Education."
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