Responsibility should not simply be passed downward.
Board → administration → school → staff → student.
Previous trustee campaigns promised many of the right things: Catholic education, student and parent voice, safe schools, classroom resources and fiscal accountability.
But promises—and even decades of experience—must ultimately be measured by results.
By 2026, the Ministry of Education identified serious problems at YCDSB: depleted reserves following years of inadequate financial management, high-risk financial assumptions, frequent leadership changes and ongoing governance concerns. The situation became serious enough for the Province to place the Board under supervision.
That history should change how we think about the next trustee.
A better standard
Experience matters when it strengthens judgment.
A trustee should not be chosen simply because they have accumulated the most titles, committees, institutional connections or years in office.
Experience is valuable when it strengthens judgment. But governance, finance, audit, policy and institutional influence concentrated around the same networks can also make independent oversight more difficult.
The opposite is not the answer either.
A candidate asking voters to entrust them with a major public institution should provide enough information for voters to understand their qualifications, experience, priorities and approach to governance.
The choice should not be between institutional power and an unknown candidate.
It should be a trustee who is informed, independent, transparent and accountable for results.
What a trustee should do
Governance and oversight—not day-to-day management.
A trustee is not the day-to-day manager of teachers, principals or other staff.
The trustee's responsibility is governance and oversight.
That means listening to students, families and staff; understanding the evidence; questioning financial and administrative assumptions; identifying where responsibility actually lies; and following important decisions through to their results.
Oversight must also work back upward.
Student and staff experience → identify the problem → find the systemic cause → Board oversight → corrective action → result.
When staff raise concerns, the first question should not be who to blame. It should be what they need to do their work effectively and whether Board policy, resources, budgeting or administration are contributing to the problem.
When a family or student raises a recurring concern, it should not disappear inside the system.
Independent judgment under pressure
An approach rooted in evidence and responsibility.
Trustees will face financial, administrative, institutional and community pressures.
- 01Listen
- 02Establish the facts
- 03Examine the evidence
- 04Identify authority and responsibility
- 05Act at the correct level
- 06Follow the result
A trustee should not make decisions according to who has the most institutional influence or applies the greatest pressure. The decision should be based on evidence, responsibility and its effect on students.
Oversight must reach the student
What was the result for students?
Every Board decision eventually reaches a classroom, a family, a school—and ultimately a student.
A budget being approved does not prove that it worked.
A policy being adopted does not prove that it worked.
A responsibility being delegated does not prove that the problem was solved.
The final question should always be: What was the result for students?
That is the standard I want to bring to the York Catholic District School Board.
01
Fix what failed
Restore financial accountability, stronger governance and oversight, clearer responsibility and earlier identification of risk.
02
Protect what matters
Protect Catholic education, successful programs, classrooms, students, staff, families and strong Catholic school communities.
03
Prepare for what’s next
Plan responsibly for student needs, enrolment, infrastructure, transportation, technology, finances and the future of Catholic education.
For students, families & Catholic education.
Experience matters. Independence matters. Transparency matters. But results for students matter most.
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