Embattled York school board looks to turns page under temporary director
Kathi Wallace will helm the controversy-plagued York Region school board until a permanent replacement can be found. Experts warn this will be no easy task.

TheStar.com
May 25, 2017
Noor Javed and Kristin Rushowy

For months, Kathi Wallace read the news and followed the controversy at the York Region school board from afar.

Wallace, who recently retired as director from Simcoe County board, the northerly neighbour to York, said she was “surprised” and “rather taken aback” by what was happening.

She never imagined she would be called upon — and pulled out of retirement — to help turn things around.

“I must admit, I was surprised by the phone call,” she said, in a recent sit-down interview with the Star. “But, when you get a call to help out communities, students, families and staff, meet a challenge and move forward . . . I couldn’t resist that.”

For the next few months, Wallace will serve as an interim director at the embattled board following its year of non-stop turmoil.

A three-month probe was launched in January by Minister of Education Mitzie Hunter after growing concerns of racism, fiscal mismanagement and a culture of fear at the board. The investigation, which included input from hundreds of people, found trustees and the former director “lacked leadership,” and, instead, cultivated mistrust in an environment where equity and transparency were shunned.

The damning report, which was largely critical of former director J. Philip Parappally, led to his dismissal last month.

Wallace isn’t intimidated by the past.

“I saw it as a very positive challenge and opportunity to perhaps dig in my experiences . . . and use those to help others,” she said. “I also have a real sense that this board is absolutely wanting to move forward, and wanting to accept the challenge, and I believe they have the capacity.”

Her goal is to also challenge staff and trustees to “think long and hard, about how (any decision) comes right down to the classroom and the students,” she said.

“How’s that going to really promote that positivity and student achievement for all of our students?”

But the task ahead will not be easy, and Charles Pascal, a former deputy minister of education, who believes the board should make sure Wallace is around long enough to deal effectively with the “tricky issues of governance” plaguing the board.

“This should be a two-year interim appointment, because it’s going to take at least 18 months, with intentional reflection, on all the mistakes that the current board has made,” said Pascal, now a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

“If they don’t deal directly with their own problems before they go and hire (a permanent director) . . . who, of any quality, in terms of what they are looking for in a director, will step forward? Who will work for a board that hasn’t figured it out?”

Frank Kelly, executive director of the Council of Ontario Directors of Education, said Wallace’s experience in Simcoe showed her to be “very positive in building a team there and working with her board of trustees — those are the two things that I think are needed in her new job.

“She’s a quiet, sensitive person. She listens to her staff and she listens to the community, and she’s been a good education leader.”

Wallace is coming on board at a time when staff and trustees are making crucial budgetary and policy decisions, and “there’s a lot of strategic planning made going into next (fall),” he also said.

He expects her to offer solutions to some of the problems plaguing the board, but “her main objective is to bring together the senior team and the trustees so they are all working on the same page.

“She’s good at that,” he added. “She has a record of that.”

Wallace, who has worked in education for decades, moving up the ranks from teacher to board director in Simcoe, officially started in her role last week and hit the ground running.

In her first week, she reached out to parents and chatted one-on-one with some senior staff, met with ministry officials, attended community events and spoke with principal groups — with the goal of “just listening” and finding ways for community members to “move forward.”

“Something that I truly believe is: ‘better together,’ ” said Wallace, who has implemented an open-door policy to encourage staff to drop in and take coffee breaks with her.

Among Wallace’s goals is to ensure the 22 directives set out by the minister of education, which include establishing a human rights office, continuing training for all staff on equity and human rights and the creation of a comprehensive policy for hiring a new director, are executed in the “very best way.”

While the board has met all the provincial directives so far, there are a few areas, including the human rights office as well as better outreach and communication with the community, for which it has asked the board to provide more concrete steps.

Board chair Loralea Carruthers, who has been at the forefront of managing the crisis at the board, says there has been a noticeable change at the board, among staff and trustees in recent weeks — with many staff talking about their “desire to come to work again.”

“We are turning a page, everyone is feeling it,” she said. “There’s a new tone, and people rise to the occasion.”

Shernett Martin, executive director of the Vaughan African Canadian Association said she, too, has noticed a change in tone at the board and among staff and trustees.

“There is a willingness towards partnership and dialogue that was not there before,” said Martin, who said she plans to meet with Wallace in June.

“And a lot of optimism going forward.

“We really hope she sets the stage for the next director.”