The province has taken over the running of the Peel District School Board, the public board for Mississauga, Brampton and Caledon, after the board moved to lay off teachers in the middle of the school year.
Education Minister Paul Calandra placed the board under provincial supervision on Wednesday, Jan. 28, effective immediately. The province says the move stops an imminent layoff plan that would have cost 60 classroom teachers their jobs and disrupted learning for nearly 1,400 students.
The province cited two concerns. The board has run a deficit for five consecutive years, which the province says calls into question its long-term financial sustainability. And the layoffs it planned to help close that gap would have disrupted learning in the middle of the school year.
The action I am taking at the PDSB will put an immediate halt to a disruptive mid-year upheaval in staffing that would have created uncertainty for parents, students and teachers alike.
— Paul Calandra, Ontario Minister of Education
What happens next
The board has 14 days to respond to the minister's concerns. After that, Calandra will decide whether to keep it under supervision. When a board is under supervision, the minister can appoint a supervisor to exercise the board's powers and duties, and The Canadian Press reported that Calandra plans to name one if the supervision continues.
He did not sound open to persuasion.
I think they'll be hard pressed to convince me in 14 days that they will change what has been five years of, frankly, mismanagement and bad decision-making.
— Paul Calandra, in an interview with The Canadian Press
The board cancelled a meeting it had planned for Wednesday night, according to The Canadian Press.
Part of a wider pattern
On the same day, the minister gave the York Catholic District School Board 14 days to address governance and financial concerns or face the same step. The province says six other school boards are already under supervision because of growing deficits, shrinking reserves and poor management decisions.
Those takeovers rest on the Supporting Children and Students Act, 2025, which broadened the minister's powers over school board finances, governance and program performance. The law lets the minister investigate a board, issue binding directions or place it under supervision over financial or non-financial concerns.
Calandra has also signalled broader changes to how boards are governed, including possibly all but eliminating the role of trustees in the English public system, The Canadian Press reported.
Critics argue the takeovers sideline elected trustees and erode local democracy, and that boards are struggling because provincial funding has not kept pace with rising needs and inflation. Interim Ontario Liberal Leader John Fraser said the government believes schools can be run from Queen's Park.
This government is using takeovers to deflect from the fact that schools aren't safe places to learn.
— John Fraser, interim leader, Ontario Liberal Party, in a statement
What it means for Mississauga families
In the short term, the province says the board's mid-year layoff plan is halted, which means the 60 teaching positions it planned to cut are not being eliminated for now. Longer term, decisions about the board's budget, staffing and spending in Mississauga schools will rest with the province, not with locally elected trustees, for as long as supervision lasts.
The minister's decision on whether to continue supervision is expected once the 14-day response period ends.
