big issues:trustees, the board, and the province

A school board is a local governing body. It oversees publicly funded elementary and secondary schools. Ontario operates the provincial education system, and school boards provide local governance within that system.

School boards make decisions about programs, services, staffing, facilities, and local priorities while operating within provincial requirements.

The roles of the Province, boards, trustees, and staff are set out mainly in the Education Act. The Province sets the curriculum, the standards, and how much funding each board receives. Boards decide how to use those resources locally.

Many rules that shape a school day are provincial, not board, decisions. Recent provincial changes, for example, require written exams in many secondary courses and make attendance and participation part of final grades.

Trustees provide governance and oversight for the school system, not its day-to-day running. Day-to-day operations are managed by school principals and board staff. Trustees make decisions collectively, as members of the board, rather than individually.

Trustees help set the board's direction through policies, budgets, and long-term strategic planning, including the board's multi-year strategic plan (Go to information source). You can read more about school board governance standards and best practices from the Ontario Education Services Corporation (Go to information source). Trustees also oversee senior leadership and decide on schools, programs, and how board resources are used. That can include attendance boundaries, where specialized programs are located, and whether schools open, close, or combine.

Trustees are elected to represent their communities. That includes current and future students, families, residents, and taxpayers. Public board meetings and formal deputations let members of the public speak to trustees directly.

Trustees' authority has real limits. They do not set education tax rates or decide how much provincial funding their board receives. The Province controls the funding formula and many of the rules on how the money can be spent. Much of a board's budget is already committed to salaries, special education, and other required costs. That leaves trustees less room to act than the budget's size suggests. Even the budget is not theirs alone; senior staff prepare it. If trustees and staff cannot agree, the Province decides.

Each of the four boards is a separate organization with its own elected trustees, staff, schools, policies, and budget. All four operate schools in Toronto. The two French-language boards also cover much larger areas of southern and central Ontario. The two English-language boards are the largest; the TDSB is one of the biggest school boards in Canada.

Which trustee do I vote for?

When you vote in the municipal election, you also vote for a school board trustee. But unlike the mayoral and council races, not every voter can choose among all four boards.

By default, eligible voters are listed as supporters of the English public system. Voting for the English Catholic board requires meeting the Catholic separate-school eligibility rules. Voting for either French-language board requires French-language education rights, with added Catholic requirements for the French Catholic board.

Your school support designation decides which trustee election appears on your ballot. Check your designation before the election and update it if needed. School board wards also differ from City Council wards. So your trustee candidates may cover a different area than your councillor. Ontario's voter guide explains less common situations, such as voting in more than one municipality.

Who pays for the school boards?

Although trustees are elected during municipal elections, school boards are not part of the City of Toronto. The Province runs Ontario’s education system and sets how much funding each board receives.

Part of that funding comes from the education portion of property taxes. The Province sets the residential education tax rate. Toronto collects the tax and sends the education share to the Province (Go to information source - PDF). The Province funds each school board to its full entitlement (Go to information source). City Council does not set the education tax rate. And raising Toronto's municipal property tax does not raise the money boards receive.

Boards must generally adopt balanced budgets and operate within provincial funding rules. The Province can intervene when a board fails to meet certain financial or governance requirements. In some cases it can appoint a supervisor to exercise powers that would normally belong to trustees. That is what happened to Toronto’s two English-language boards in 2025.

The TDSB and TCDSB have been under provincial supervision since June 27, 2025. The two French-language boards have not. This section explains why supervision was introduced and how it affects the role of elected trustees.

In 2025, the Province conducted separate financial investigations of the TDSB and TCDSB. The investigations reviewed each board's finances and governance and recommended that both boards be placed under provincial supervision.

The Province appointed Rohit Gupta as supervisor of the TDSB and Frank Benedetto as supervisor of the TCDSB. During supervision, they exercise powers that would otherwise belong to the elected boards. They oversee each board’s governance, finances, and decisions.

What does supervision mean for trustees?

While supervision is in place, elected trustees at the TDSB and TCDSB do not hold most of the governing powers described here. The supervisors hold them instead. At the TDSB, regular board meetings have been paused. Decisions that trustees would normally make are made by the supervisor instead.

There is an important exception at the TCDSB. As a Catholic separate school board, its elected trustees keep authority over denominational matters. These are matters relating to the board's Catholic character and religious mandate. The supervisor exercises the other powers. See TCDSB information on supervision.

Supervision also changes how the public engages with a board. Questions about an individual school still begin with the school and principal. Questions that would normally be directed to trustees may instead need to be directed to the supervisor or board administration.

Why are Torontonians electing trustees in 2026?

School board elections still take place on October 26, 2026, including for the TDSB and TCDSB. Voters elect trustees to the new four-year term, even though those two boards are under supervision. Go to Elections Toronto for more information.

This means trustees may begin their term under different conditions than would normally apply. If supervision continues, some trustee powers will remain with the supervisors. If supervision ends, those powers can return to the elected board.

The trustees elected at the TDSB and TCDSB in 2026 will serve whether supervision continues or ends. They may resume responsibility for governing two of Canada's largest school systems.