I’m very delighted to welcome two grade 5 classes from St. Agatha Catholic School who are here with us today, with teachers Shannon Murphy, Deirdre Moloney-Sciberras, Hyacinth Fernandes, Kathleen Dillon, and Theresa Moulds.

We also have with us trustee Nancy Crawford in the House.

Welcome to your House.

I’d like to thank Liz for her work on this petition. It’s greatly appreciated.

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas parents expect that school board trustees and staff be qualified, accountable and focused on putting forward a plan to boost student achievement; and

“Whereas Ontario’s education system should offer the full accountability, transparency and responsiveness expected by families to prepare students for the jobs of tomorrow; and

“Whereas currently, Ontario’s 72 school boards set their own priorities, creating inconsistencies in student outcomes across the education system; and

“Whereas training for school board officials, including trustees and directors of education, to ensure they are unified in their respective roles to help students build skills they need to succeed; and

“Whereas a trustee dispute mechanism should be put in place, saving precious time and countless taxpayer dollars by building a provincially appointed roster of qualified integrity commissioners to quickly and effectively adjudicate the disputes;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario as follows:

“To urge all members of the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to support the passage of Bill 98, the Better School and Student Outcomes Act, 2023.”

I agree with this petition, will sign my name to it and give it to page Senna to take to the table.

Thank you to the member for her presentation. I recognize her having been a trustee. I know she’s also been a part of OPSBA.

I’m going to read this. We’ve done three years of consultation with trustees where they had a survey and they voted on a standardized code of conduct, and I’m just going to read this piece. It says, “The minister should establish a minimum code of conduct for trustees, in consultation with trustees or their representative associations.” This was a quote from the member. That is exactly what we are doing. Does the member disagree with her own recommendation?

I think the member from Markham–Unionville brings a very interesting perspective to this. Correct me if I’m wrong: You were a school board trustee, I think, at one point, prior to getting elected here to the provincial government. Maybe you could talk a little bit about some of your experience and what it was like having to work with, maybe, some challenging colleagues who didn’t necessarily want to hear the views of parents being brought before the board and the other trustees.