Surprising news for those in the education sector on Friday.
Provincial Education Minister Todd Smith announced his resignation as cabinet minister and as an MPP to accept a job in the private sector.
Smith had served in cabinet since Premier Doug Ford's government was first elected in 2018, but spent the longest amount of time in the energy portfolio.
His resignation came after spending less than three months as education minister, following a cabinet shuffle back in June.
Local ETFO president Mario Spagnuolo says it's certainly shocking and surprising to see, even more so since ETFO members were in Toronto for meetings with political leaders last week.
"The organization invited all of the political party leaders and the education minister. The Green Party, Liberal Party and the New Democrats all came but the PCs declined the invitation saying they were unavailable. And now we're kind of reading into that saying did he already know he was going to be leaving the portfolio? We don't know," he said.
He says the invitation was an olive branch that wasn't really accepted even though they're trying to work with the government to make improvements to public education.
Looking ahead to issues needing to be dealt with, Spagnuolo says funding for special education and dealing with violence in schools will be at the top of the list.
"Now you're going to have a government who is going to have a new person who is going to have to get updated on all of the issues. So there's going to be a delay, I believe, in addressing some of these issues with the stakeholders. That's problematic for me because these are kids that need support."
Spagnuolo says the Ford government hasn't made education a priority, and he's hopeful the next minister will engage with stakeholders to try to improve the situation.
"So we're willing to work with anybody who is willing to sit with frontline workers and listen to the issues. Listen to what's happening in our schools and genuinely want to address them because in the end even if we do sit on the other side of politics we all want what's best for children, it's just how do we get there," he stated.
Later on Friday afternoon, Premier Ford tapped Jill Dunlop to serve as the next minister of education.
She previously held the role of minister of colleges and universities.
- with files from AM800's The Shift with Patty Handysides