The local president of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario says he's skeptical and worried about the provincial government taking over school boards.
Mario Spagnuolo says he wants to see the fine print of this plan, and has worries that this could lead to the elimination of school boards altogether.
The province announced on Thursday morning plans to give the minister of education power to easily put school boards under supervision and require more boards to put police officers in schools.
Education Minister Paul Calandra introduced broad legislation on Thursday following weeks of warnings to boards that he would implement tougher oversight.
Spagnuolo says the worry is that this could lead to the elimination of school boards altogether.
"School boards do have issues, just like any institution in a democracy, there's always going to be issues. So we need to deal with those issues and work together as a team to try to resolve them. But a takeover, and the potential of eliminating local decision-making, that's going from 0 to 100 very quickly, and that's problematic."
He says there's a mental health crisis in schools, yet the boards are underfunded by the government.
"Kids are waiting to see and to get help from a social worker, or psychologist, but our system can't help them because we've been cutting those positions. School boards have been blamed for it because they have been underfunded as an education system, and so they're making cuts because inflation has continued to increase but the funding hasn't help up with that."
He says adding police officers to address violence in schools is not the answer.
"There's a role for police officers when things get really bad, but we can be proactive. We can try to meet kids needs before they escalate. Let's talk to kids, let's get them some counselling, we don't have guidance counsellors in elementary school but kids need them, they need them today more than ever before but there's no funding for guidance counsellors in elementary schools."
Spagnuolo says parents can contact their local MPP's to have their voices heard regarding this legislation.
The legislation, if approved, is set to expand the reasons for initiating an investigation or putting a board under supervision beyond just financial ones, to include matters of public interest.
It would also require school boards to implement a School Resource Officer program if the local police service offers one.
-with files from AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show