School Board Research asked Ontario’s trustee candidates one question about governance. What the answers say about the next four years.
Summary
In October 2026, School Board Research sent one question to every trustee candidate with a published email address at Ontario’s 72 district school boards. It asked whether good governance would be the candidate’s first priority, starting with the board’s code of conduct, bullying prevention and intervention plan and accessibility documents. As of 23 October 2026, 122 candidates had answered. Every answer is published in full, in the candidate’s own words, on the candidate list.
- Of the 122 answers, 115 were Yes and 7 were No. Most of the No answers did not reject the requirements; the reasons varied, from other priorities, to the January timeline, to the board being under provincial supervision.
- New candidates answered far more often than sitting trustees. Of the new candidates who opened the email, 21 per cent answered. Of the sitting trustees running again who opened it, 3 per cent answered: 6 of 232.
- The most common idea in the answers is that a policy has to work in practice, not only exist on paper. Thirty-eight answers (31 per cent) say so in some form, and 31 (25 per cent) mention timelines or deadlines for fixing gaps.
- Few answers deal with what happens after a family reports bullying: 11 of 122 (9 per cent). The boards’ own documents rarely deal with it either: only five of 72 boards say what steps will be taken after a parent reports (School Board Research 2026b).
1. Introduction
The question sent to each candidate was:
Will good governance be your first priority, starting with having the board’s code of conduct, bullying prevention and intervention plan and accessibility documents meet the provincial requirements at our next review in January 2027? Yes or No, and why?
The requirements are Policy/Program Memorandum 128 on codes of conduct, Policy/Program Memorandum 144 on bullying prevention and intervention, and the Integrated Accessibility Standards (O. Reg. 191/11), which require an accessibility policy, a multi-year accessibility plan and an annual status report. The 2026 results for each board are on the Board Report Card (School Board Research 2026c).
For a parent, the answers are a rare record of how the people who may sit at the board table describe the job, in writing and before they are elected. This article sets out who answered, what the answers talk about, and where they differ.
2. Who answered
Table 1 follows the question from the candidate lists to the answers. The email went to the 970 candidates with a published address. Of those, 776 opened it and 122 answered.
| Candidates | On the lists | Acclaimed | Emailed | Opened | Answered | Answered, of those who opened | Yes | No |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New candidates | 806 | 85 | 654 | 542 | 116 | 21 per cent | 109 | 7 |
| Sitting trustees running again | 408 | 185 | 312 | 232 | 6 | 3 per cent | 6 | 0 |
| Former trustees | 4 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 per cent | 0 | 0 |
| All candidates | 1,218 | 271 | 970 | 776 | 122 | 16 per cent | 115 | 7 |
Figure 1 shows the gap between new candidates and sitting trustees. A candidate who does not open the email cannot answer it, so the figure uses those who opened it as the base. On that base, a new candidate was about eight times as likely to answer as a sitting trustee. Acclamation explains part of the gap: none of the 78 acclaimed sitting trustees who opened the email answered. Counting contested races only, 22 per cent of new candidates who opened it answered (111 of 499), against 4 per cent of sitting trustees (6 of 154), or about six times as likely.
Table 1 also shows why the sitting trustees matter. Of the 408 sitting trustees running again, 185 were acclaimed and will return to the board without a vote. Families in those areas will not see a contest. These trustees were in office when the 2026 results were recorded, although at boards under provincial supervision they had no decision-making authority.
Answers came from 45 of the 72 boards. Table 2 shows the answer rate by type of board.
| Type of board | Candidates | Emailed | Opened | Answered | Answered, of those who opened |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English public | 689 | 557 | 462 | 81 | 18 per cent |
| English Catholic | 360 | 288 | 217 | 27 | 12 per cent |
| French Catholic | 103 | 72 | 56 | 9 | 16 per cent |
| French public | 66 | 53 | 41 | 5 | 12 per cent |
3. What the answers talk about
Each answer was read for seven ideas that recur across them. Figure 2 shows how many answers mention each one. An answer can mention more than one idea.
3.1 On paper is not enough
The idea that comes up most often is that having a policy is not the same as following it. Candidates described compliance as “the floor” or “the minimum standard”. One new candidate at Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board wrote: “Compliance is the floor, and it comes before anything new.” Another, at Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, wrote from experience as a parent: “I know firsthand that having policies in place does not necessarily mean they are being followed.”
3.2 Timelines and public reporting
A quarter of the answers mention timelines or deadlines for fixing gaps, and 18 per cent say progress should be reported to the public. These are the answers a parent can check later. One new candidate at Thames Valley District School Board set out a “90-Day Corrective Action Plan” and “Quarterly Public Reporting”. Another, at Halton Catholic District School Board, wrote: “I will ask staff at my first meetings to confirm that our code of conduct meets PPM 128 …”
3.3 After a family reports bullying
Only 11 answers deal with what happens after a family reports bullying: how to report, what happens next, and when the family hears back. The boards’ published documents rarely say this either: five of 72 boards say where a parent files a report and with whom, and five say what steps will be taken after a parent reports (School Board Research 2026b). The candidates who raised it were specific. One new candidate at Durham District School Board wrote: “I know a bullying plan only works when families know how to report, what happens next, and when they will hear back.” Another, at Hamilton-Wentworth: “It’s not enough to simply say, “We investigated it.””
3.4 Boards under provincial supervision
Eighteen answers mention provincial supervision. Candidates at these boards wrote that elected trustees will have little or no authority while supervision continues. Some said what they would do in the meantime. One at Thames Valley answered No for this reason, writing that “TVDSB trustees are currently unable to do anything.”
4. Sitting trustees and new candidates
All six sitting trustees who answered said Yes, but they described their boards differently. One, at Thames Valley, wrote: “Where documents fall short today, I would want a clear explanation of why those gaps were not addressed during this term and what is being done to correct them.” Another, at Conseil scolaire Viamonde, wrote that compliance there is seen “comme un élément normal de la culture organisationnelle” (as a normal part of the organization’s culture; School Board Research translation).
Several new candidates noted that they could not answer for the current term. One at Wellington Catholic District School Board wrote: “As I am not an incumbent, I cannot speak to why these gaps may not have been addressed during the current term.” Some also noted that the calendar is tight: new trustees take office in November, and one candidate at Waterloo Catholic District School Board wrote, “We only elect our boardchair in November and our first meeting is in Dec.”
5. The No answers
Seven candidates answered No. Most did not dispute the requirements. One at District School Board of Niagara wrote: “Legal compliance is a responsibility of governance, but it should not be mistaken for the entirety of good governance.” One at Waterloo Region District School Board wrote: “This is a provincial requirement so should be done. But it’s not my first priority.” A new candidate at Hamilton-Wentworth, who had served as a trustee there from 2014 to 2018, wrote that the candidate could not “promise a particular outcome by January before reviewing your findings and understanding what action is required.”
6. What a parent can do
Read your board’s answers in full on the candidate list, along with the names of candidates who did not answer. Read your board’s 2026 results on the Board Report Card. A parent can write to an elected trustee at any time, without the school’s permission. The boards will be reviewed again in January 2027, and the results will be published beside the 2026 figures.
7. Data, method and limitations
Candidates and their status (new, sitting or former trustee, acclaimed) come from the certified candidate lists published by the municipal clerks. The question was sent by email on 15 October 2026 to every candidate with an address published by a clerk or on the candidate’s own campaign site; 248 candidates had no published address and could not be sent the question. Opens were recorded by the email tool and are as of 23 October 2026; an open is a signal, not proof that the email was read. Answers came through a form on the website or by email, and each is published unedited.
The ideas in Figure 2 were identified by searching each answer for set words and phrases (for example “on paper”, “box to check” or “implemented” for the first idea), followed by a reading of every match to remove answers where the words were used in another sense. The counts show what candidates mention, not what they will do. The answers are self-selected: candidates who answered may differ from those who did not, and the figures do not describe all candidates. Quotations are given with the candidate’s board and status rather than name, because the article describes the range of answers and does not single out candidates; each quotation can be found in full on the candidate list. School Board Research does not endorse candidates.
References
Ontario. 2011. O. Reg. 191/11: Integrated Accessibility Standards. https://www.ontario.ca/laws/regulation/110191
Ontario Ministry of Education. Policy/Program Memorandum 128: The Provincial Code of Conduct and School Board Codes of Conduct. https://www.ontario.ca/document/education-ontario-policy-and-program-direction/policyprogram-memorandum-128
Ontario Ministry of Education. Policy/Program Memorandum 144: Bullying Prevention and Intervention. https://www.ontario.ca/document/education-ontario-policy-and-program-direction/policyprogram-memorandum-144
School Board Research. 2026a. Ontario Trustee Candidates 2026. https://schoolboardresearch.ca/election-2026/
School Board Research. 2026b. Said, Not Shown: Ontario School Boards Say They Deal With Bullying. What They Publish Says Less. https://schoolboardresearch.ca/2026/10/21/said-not-shown-ontario-school-boards-bullying/
School Board Research. 2026c. 2026 Board Report Card. https://schoolboardresearch.ca/board-report-card/
Legal disclaimer. School Board Research is not a law firm, its researchers are not lawyers, and nothing in this article is legal advice. A reader who needs advice about their own situation should consult a lawyer.
School Board Research publishes independent analysis of Ontario school board data and policy. We are not lawyers, and nothing in this publication is legal advice. If you identify an error, please write to info@schoolboardresearch.ca. Corrections are noted on the page where they are made.
Leave a Reply