When you read about the Peel District School Board these days, you can sense a certain tension that exists just beneath the official announcements and award ceremonies, beneath the happy social media posts about boxing champions and powwows. It’s the kind of conflict that arises in organizations when those in charge of them can no longer agree on their true goals.
About 153,000 students from more than 259 schools in Mississauga, Brampton, and Caledon are served by the board. There are a lot of kids there. Many parents. There is a lot of faith in a system that is currently publicly straining to maintain stability due to provincial oversight, dwindling enrollment, and an increasingly intimate political impasse.
The most recent chapter includes a non-profit, a portable classroom, and a school board chair who claims he is being singled out. In addition to serving as the chair of the Peel District School Board and a longtime Brampton trustee, David Green is the executive director of Free For All Community Services. According to reports, his organization has been storing football equipment, computers, and barbecue supplies in a portable at Harold F. Loughin Public School in Brampton since about 2010. Paul Calandra, the minister of education, described it as “outrageous.” According to Green, there was a deal in place, the organization returned programs to the school in exchange, and the whole thing is politically motivated reprisal for his criticism of the provincial takeover. There appears to be no interest on either side in giving up politely.
It’s difficult to ignore how well this disagreement reflects a larger dynamic. Eight school boards are currently under the supervision of Ontario’s education minister. He has proposed legislation to lower the compensation and responsibilities of trustees. According to most accounts, he has been changing the definition of school trustee in this province, and Peel has been one of the most prominent battlegrounds. Depending on how much you trust the authorities, you may interpret Green’s situation as a conflict of interest or as a government using administrative tools to silence its critics.
The students continue to arrive in the interim. More than 300 teachers at the Peel District School Board—159 permanent teachers and 172 elementary teachers—were reportedly in danger of being laid off as a result of dwindling enrollment back in March. These aren’t abstract numbers. It’s likely that all of those teachers are familiar with the names of their pupils, their learning challenges, and the minor accomplishments that don’t appear on the report card. Families experience the loss of continuity long after the budget meeting is over.
Peel’s declining enrollment may be partially due to a demographic shift, with families relocating and people moving farther away due to the high cost of housing in the area. It’s also possible that the educational system hasn’t kept up with the community’s changes. According to most accounts, the board’s own 2023 student census was a sincere effort to find out who is in the seats, what they need, what they are lacking, and where the gaps are. New books, inclusive resources, and leadership opportunities are said to have resulted from that census. These things are not insignificant. However, they coexist with political meddling and layoff notices, and it’s unclear if the board has the authority to consistently address any of these issues.
The third annual Powwow at the Maawnjiding Wingushkeng Centre for Indigenous Excellence, the Sandalwood Heights students winning national boxing titles, and the play Viral, which was written by educators and students about the COVID-19 pandemic years, are some of the truly touching moments in Peel’s academic year. These things are important. They point to a community that is making an effort and recognizes education as something more than test scores and financial constraints.
The Peel District School Board will probably emerge from its previous turmoil. However, the question worth considering is whether the students in the midst of all of this—the ones whose parents are watching ministers and trustees argue on the news, the ones who are waiting to find out if their teacher will still be there in September—are receiving what they were promised when the board was first stated to “inspire the smile within each student.” It’s simple to say that. When politics get loud, it is much more difficult to mean it.
