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TORONTO — A provincially appointed supervisor has fired the director of education at Ontario’s largest school board, amid a shakeup of board governance by the education minister.
The supervisor of the Toronto District School Board said in a memo to staff Friday that the board needs a fresh start and Clayton La Touche is leaving, effective immediately.
“Now in my sixth month as supervisor of the board, I feel that the TDSB needs a fresh start as we look to set the TDSB up for success in the years ahead,” supervisor Rohit Gupta wrote.
“With that in mind and after much consideration, I, together with the minister of education, have made the difficult decision to make a leadership change.”
Education Minister Paul Calandra said in a statement that Gupta is guiding the TDSB to refocus on student achievement.
“I have full confidence that the supervisor, working with the interim director, will drive that focus and ensure every decision puts students first,” he wrote.
Calandra has made reforming school board governance a near-singular focus of his time as education minister, putting six boards under provincial control and suggesting he wants to largely eliminate the role of trustees.
The most recent board to be placed under supervision is the North Bay-area Near North District School Board, with Calandra calling it the “poster child” for why he brought forward a law making it easier for the province to take control of school boards.
He named himself as the supervisor of that board, on a temporary basis.
A government review of the Near North board found a fractured relationship between administration and trustees, a director of education who participated in determining his own performance rating, an “absence of leadership” from the director of education and that the actions of some trustees contributed to long delays in constructing a new Parry Sound school.
The Near North director of education has since left the role.
Calandra has said he will announce further changes to board governance early in the new year, with an eye on the role of trustees, but changes will not include closing or amalgamating school boards, merging the public and Catholic systems, or introducing charter schools.
Critics have said that sidelining or removing trustees takes away parental and community voices from schools.
The NDP’s education critic said this decision at the TDSB lacks transparency.
“Yet again, we see an incredibly consequential decision being made by Conservative-appointed supervisors behind closed doors,” Chandra Pasma wrote in a statement.
“Parents have not been consulted and had no opportunity to participate in this important decision.”
Liberal parliamentary leader John Fraser said Calandra treats education “like a one-man show.”
“We now have people with no discernible background in education firing leaders with years of experience, because the minister thinks he can run Ontario’s education system from his office at Queen’s Park,” Fraser wrote.
Gupta’s background is in public policy and finance.
Calandra cited financial reasons in taking over the TDSB in June, with the government saying the board has rejected nearly half of the cost-saving measures management has recommended over the past two years and the board relies heavily on proceeds from asset sales to balance its books.
The TDSB’s associate director Stacey Zucker has been named interim director of education.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 12, 2025.
Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
