Behind the scenes: Trouble with trustees

Another PO exit

ABOVE THE FOLD

The Ford government’s hotly anticipated changes to school board governance has landed with not a bang but a whimper, with the PCs backing away from their threat to gut trustees altogether — something my sources first predicted last month.

There’s plenty of cheers and jeers for the control and reform that’s headed for schools, and behind closed government doors, the matter was just as divisive.

Education Minister PAUL CALANDRA had tabled a suite of options for Cabinet consideration, and while he had openly mused about nixing the trustee position outright, not everyone was convinced. Namely, DOUG FORD.

Sure, the Premier played into Calandra’s narrative, publicly chiding trustees for questionable spending (on “hamburgers,” “milkshakes,” “flat-screen TVs” and art-acquiring trips to Italy). But but but: privately, as my sources say, “the polling wasn’t there.”

Ford may say “polls are for dogs,” but eliminating a democratically elected position mere weeks before nominations open…