Trustee facing board's censure
February 9, 2010
Kristin Rushowy
EDUCATION REPORTER
Toronto's school board will simply recommend a censure for outspoken Trustee Josh Matlow after he stood his ground and refused to apologize for criticizing a decision to spend $345,000 on a one-day conference at the Air Canada Centre.
Last week, the Toronto District School Board approved $1.7 million for education director Chris Spence's vision, which includes the conference.
Matlow told the Toronto Sun on Wednesday that the cost of the teacher professional development day was "insane."
Board chair Bruce Davis had set a deadline of Monday at 4 p.m. for Matlow to retract his statements and apologize.
In a blistering, 2 1/2 page letter, Davis said the Sept. 1 professional development day for teachers "will be remarkable" and at $28 per delegate is "good value for the money."
"If Trustee Matlow doesn't have the courtesy to apologize, if he doesn't have the sense to see the damage that he has done to his colleagues and to the director and to the school board by suggesting that our spending is out of control, then no punishment, no censure, no admonishment, no banishment will ever change his mind," Davis wrote.
Matlow said he didn't understand the motivation for the letter. "I'm very saddened that the chair would write a letter this intemperate about me," he said.
Constitutional lawyers told the Star the board has no right to stop Matlow from speaking out. "I think Matlow is doing exactly what we want school trustees to do," said Ed Morgan, a law professor at the University of Toronto. "He's speaking his mind and speaking in criticism of board decisions. That's why we elect independent thinkers."
The board's code of conduct says trustees must abide by "majority decision of the board while maintaining their right to state their personal opinions" and express "differing opinion in a respectful and honest manner without making disparaging remarks or references about other board members."
Trustees can be censured – a public disapproval of their actions – or barred from meetings for violating the code.
Toronto Star