{"id":37946,"date":"2026-04-09T16:30:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37946"},"modified":"2026-04-09T16:30:47","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T20:30:47","slug":"were-a-touchpoint-for-community-members-says-trustee-wright-as-province-weights-future-of-education-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/were-a-touchpoint-for-community-members-says-trustee-wright-as-province-weights-future-of-education-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWe\u2019re a touchpoint for community members,\u201d says Trustee Wright as Province weights future of Education Boards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Melanie Wright was active in her daughter\u2019s education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a school volunteer, she eventually served in various roles on her school council, but, when she graduated, she wanted to continue her work \u2013 but on a larger scale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, she stepped forward to run for the Public Education Trustee for the York Regional District School Board. It\u2019s a role she\u2019s taken on enthusiastically since being elected, but, like so many Education Trustees across Ontario, just how long that role will continue to exist is a question she has been left asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ontario\u2019s Ministry of Education continues its study into the role and the future of school boards and education trustees across the Province.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here at home, the York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) is currently without an active Board of Trustees after the Ministry of Education took control of the Board and appointed Carrie Kormos as \u201cSupervisor\u201d of the YCDSB following what the Ministry described as \u201cserious concerns about infighting and long-term financial unsustainability that risk disrupting learning and undermining student success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs part of its plan to protect Ontario and ensure students are prepared for the jobs of tomorrow, these actions will help the Province restore sound financial management at these boards and ensure that every dollar invested is preparing students with practical skills for good-paying, stable careers,\u201d said the Province in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Added Education Minister Paul Calandra: \u201cAfter careful review, it is clear that both Peel and York Catholic are facing serious challenges that they cannot resolve on their own. I have appointed supervisors to restore sound management, strengthen oversight, and ensure every decision is focused on protecting student learning and success.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Ministry has not yet ruled out the wholesale elimination of school boards as its review continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the York Region District School Board has not come under the same level of Provincial scrutiny as its Catholic counterpart, Wright says she sees the role of Education Trustee as \u201cessential\u201d at the community level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a touchpoint for community members, which I think is really important,\u201d she tells The Auroran. \u201cI just looked at the role [when putting myself forward] as being very important to that connection between community, whether that be staff, students, community members, and the Board. I think it\u2019s essential they have that comfort level and someone to reach out to that\u2019s going to take their ideas and any of their concerns and bring it to the Board level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSometimes it\u2019s just a matter of redirection, and I\u2019ve found that a lot in the last three years \u2013 it\u2019s people reaching out because they don\u2019t know where else to go. I didn\u2019t know that at the time, but I think that\u2019s an essential part of my role \u2013 getting people going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Wright says the role is important, she has not yet made a decision on whether to seek re-election in Aurora and Whitchurch-Stouffville in the 2026 Municipal Election, should the role continue to exist in its current form, citing the challenge of balancing her Board work with her full-time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard decision to make. I\u2019m just not sure if I\u2019m ready to give up on the role or not, to be honest,\u201d she says. \u201cIt\u2019s an essential role. We\u2019re there to make sure the staff are doing their job \u2013 there\u2019s no way they can hire a team of people for the amount that they pay trustees and the work that we do. They can\u2019t replace that. We\u2019re a non-partisan person that anyone feels they can come to with their issues, whereas if you\u2019re hiring supervisors like they have in some of the other Boards, it\u2019s their hired person as opposed to an elected person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As she looks back on the 2022-2026 Board term so far, one of the issues Wright says she\u2019s particularly proud of is her work with her fellow Trustees in bringing back applied math after it was de-streamed for high school students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOurselves and a couple of the other Boards had de-streamed Grade 10 as well, and we just found, based on reports and different data that we were looking at, hearing from a lot of parents that there were a lot of struggles because only Academic math was available. Technically they kind of took a step back at the Ministry level and didn\u2019t de-stream Grade 10 as quickly as we thought it was going to happen. It was great to see us bringing the concerns of the community forward, looking at data with staff, and then the staff saying, \u2018You know what? Let\u2019s take a step back. We\u2019ll add back in Applied math in Grade 10, so that opens up more pathways for students who aren\u2019t comfortable taking Academic [courses].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Melanie Wright was active in her daughter\u2019s education. As a school volunteer, she eventually served in various roles on her school council, but, when she graduated, she wanted to continue her work \u2013 but on a larger scale. In 2022, she stepped forward to run for the Public Education Trustee for the York Regional District […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9S2","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-17 08:33:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37947,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37946\/revisions\/37947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}