After executive retreat pushback, public school board head takes leave of absence

The head of the region's largest school board has taken a leave of absence after coming under fire for a retreat to Toronto for senior leaders, despite a budget deficit and classroom cutbacks. 

Mark Fisher was first hired as director of education for the Thames Valley District School Board in September 2019. His salary last year is listed as more than $326,000. 

An emergency board of trustees meeting was held on Friday at 8 p.m., CBC News has learned. The last-minute board meeting was not announced to the media. The entirety of the board meeting was held in-camera. 

Sources who were at the meeting say Fisher's leave of absence is the result of blowback over an executive trip to Toronto, where about 18 senior staffers stayed in a downtown hotel with rooms overlooking Blue Jays games, despite a $7.6 million budget deficit. The trip was first reported by the London Free Press. 

Unions facing cuts and parents who are increasingly being told to send their kids with Kleenex and other essentials because of budget cutbacks were left fuming at the news.

'Weakening confidence' in public education

"There have been a couple of events that have caused concern and I think broadly the public, and certainly our teachers, as employees of the board, have had some real concerns about things that have been coming out," said Craig Smith, who heads the elementary teachers union. "A one-off is a one-off but when they start to join hands, they can have the effect of weakening confidence in public education." 

Fisher said such retreats are "industry standard" and have been happening for years. He later said executives will no longer take such trips in the future. School boards in Windsor and Waterloo confirmed to CBC News that no out-of-town trips were held this past year.

Earlier this year, other staffers came under scrutiny when CBC News reported more than a dozen members of the communications team went on a taxpayer-paid professional development outing that included a catered lunch and flower arranging workshop. 

"There's a combination of things locally that have gelled into a lack of confidence in the system, and clearly the board of trustees may have also been feeling some of that as well," Smith said. 

Questions about the leave of absence to the school board's communications manager were referred to the chair of the board of trustees, Beth Mai, who has not returned calls, emails and texts from CBC News. Mai said she would have time to answer questions "in the next day or so." 

John Bernnans, the head of the high school teachers' union, said he wants to make sure that public dollars are spent wisely on education. "We will do our best to work with whoever the senior leader is and trust that the board will find someone who will lead the board well and work well with their union partners," he said. 

On its website, the school board posted the following statement: 

"The Board of Trustees will be meeting later today to appoint an Acting Director of Education who will be in place to provide leadership for the system while the Board conducts a broader search for an Interim Director of Education.

"Day-to-day school board operations will continue as planned and this will not impact the incredible teaching and learning taking place in Thames Valley classrooms."