WATCH: Calandra flags $50,000 vacation payout to Hamilton school CEO

TORONTO — Education Minister Paul Calandra said a Hamilton public-board CEO’s unused-vacation payout should not have happened and that Queen’s Park will step in if the board does not explain it.Asked if the $50,000 unused-vacation payout was a good use of public money, Calandra said, “Full stop. No.”“You are not allowed to bank days, to the best of my knowledge, and pay yourself out for that.”He said he has asked the board for a better account of how she was able to take the money. “If the ministry needs to step in, then we will.”The Spectator reported July 10 that Petrazzini was paid out nearly $30,000 for unused vacation in 2025 alone — the third year in a row — after not using all of about nine weeks of annual leave. Board chair Maria Felix Miller called the 2025 payout a “one-time exception.” It was not..HWDSB is starting the year with an $8.1 million deficit on a budget of about $741 million. About 52,000 students return September 8.The exchange came at the end of a Hamilton event promoting Student and Family Support Offices, now required at all 72 boards as of September 1, 2026. That announcement was hosted with Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic officials. The payout Calandra flagged is at the public board, not the Catholic board.The offices must acknowledge a parent inquiry within two business days and aim to answer within five. Calandra said the eight supervised boards already running them acknowledged 95% of files in two days and answered almost 90% in five days, or gave a date. Boards will report monthly to the ministry. He said the offices use “existing resources,” with no new cost given.Teachers head back without new contracts. Calandra said he was heartened that Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario president David Mastin had indicated labour peace through September. Existing agreements still apply. A fight over which items belong at the provincial bargaining table is in front of the Ontario Labour Relations Board..On a new Staples portal tied to a $750 classroom-supply allowance for about 80,000 elementary homeroom teachers, The Trillium said educators were finding prices higher than boards used to pay, and higher than regular store prices.The government pegged the program at $66 million. Toronto Star reporting found $300 of each $750 is not new cash — it is pulled from existing board budgets. Staples won a Supply Ontario contest. Queen’s Park said that bid was about half the next one.Calandra said teachers named about 200 essential items that he insists are the cheapest on the portal. He cited pens at $8 on the public Staples site and $0.81 on the teacher list. Other goods still appear at regular price. He conceded “there is going to be a couple of things there that shouldn’t be on it.”“This is a thing that didn’t exist last year,” he said. “Help me make it better.”

WATCH: Calandra flags $50,000 vacation payout to Hamilton school CEO

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