If Toronto District School Board staff felt his behaviour was out of line at a raucous committee meeting last week, Trustee Howard Goodman apologizes.

But he’s not sorry for being “very frustrated” and pressing for an answer as to why the board has resisted paying an outstanding fee to a provincial organization he believes it is contractually obligated to pay.

Goodman said he did not yell at director of education Donna Quan after last Wednesday’s meeting — but others have characterized his behaviour as threatening.

That confrontation prompted Quan and three other senior staffers to write to chair Chris Bolton, saying they felt intimidated and that this was not the first time staff had been “subjected to abusive, threatening and insulting comments by elected officials.”

Minister of Education Liz Sandals says she will not intervene.

“School boards are locally elected and are responsible for their communities,” she said in a written statement. “I expect the (Toronto board) will work together to do what’s in the best interest of students and resolve any concerns they may have.”

On Monday, Goodman sent Quan an apology. “If you or any members of our staff did feel my behaviour on Wednesday evening to be in any way inappropriate, I apologize without reservation. It was not my intention to cause distress,” he wrote, adding he would like staff to clarify what he did so avoid “unpleasant misunderstandings” in the future.

Sources have told the Star that for years, some of the board’s 22 trustees have harangued and bullied staff, who, fearing retribution, have not complained. Trustees have also been accused of intimidation and bullying each other.

Bolton told the Star that three or four trustees, and now staff, have come forward with concerns in recent months. He’s since called on police to be present at this Wednesday’s board meeting, and also ordered doors between staff and trustee offices to be locked, forcing trustees to make appointments to meet with staff.

In his apology, Goodman said he feels not paying the owed monies to the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association — officially approved by trustees last year and due last Sept. 1 — “to be completely unacceptable. I am very concerned that our financial control systems could have allowed such an oversight to go unaddressed for so long.”

He says “this is the sort of irregular action” highlighted in a forensic audit of the board issued last December.

In an interview, Quan said staff have followed board processes, because a motion to withdraw from the association has been on the books since last summer and has been kept alive through trustees' deferrals and referrals to committees.

Given the amount is not trivial — more than $400,000 — she said it would be irresponsible of staff to authorize payment before the situation has been settled, and that the legal opinion did not say fees had to be paid immediately.

Although leaving the organization was soundly defeated at the committee meeting, a final vote on the matter only comes before trustees on Wednesday night.

Quan did not wish to discuss the confrontation with Goodman, but said there has to be a respectful working environment for staff, and that she has been approached with complaints about insults and bullying.

“I think that meeting was the tipping point for many staff,” she said.

In an interview, Goodman acknowledged he was “very frustrated because the director was deliberately not following instructions.”

He also acknowledged that Bolton had spoken to him about other complaints from staff, but said staff have never approached him personally about his behaviour, so he questioned the complaints.

In other instances of run-ins with Quan, he said they recently had a “heated conversation that was not the friendliest.”

He said he does not believe he yelled at Quan, although “from what I’ve been told, I project strongly. Some people take that projection as yelling.”

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Both the Peel and York public boards say they could not recall any complaints about trustee interactions with staff. In Peel, trustees can drop in to speak with staff, but typically call or email and may make appointments to see senior educators.

Text of Trustee Howard Goodman’s apology to Director of Education Donna Quan:

Dear Donna

Please feel free to share this email with others.

I would have written this earlier but, as you can understand, the last few days have been fairly hectic for me. I have not heard from you or any other staff member whether or not you thought my behaviour on Wednesday went beyond the sort of passionate discourse that is common in all political environments.

If you or any members of our staff did feel my behaviour on Wednesday evening to be in any way inappropriate, I apologize without reservation. It was not my intention to cause distress.

In addition, if you and/or others did feel my behaviour to be out of line, it would be of great help to have a conversation about what it was that I said and/or did that caused these feelings. Such a conversation may avoid these sorts of unpleasant misunderstandings in the future.

On the matter of the content of Wednesday's discussion, I would like to reiterate what I said then: that I consider allowing a valid invoice to remain unpaid for 6 months to be completely unacceptable. I am very concerned that our financial control systems could have allowed such an oversight to go unaddressed for so long. Our reputation is hurt by withholding for so long money that we owe. In addition, these sorts of delays can cause serious harm to our partners and suppliers.

Even more problematic than the 6 month delay is your response on Tuesday when you learned of it. Several Trustees had conversations with you before Wednesday's meeting urging you to authorize immediate payment to OPSBA, a payment that had been approved by Board last year. These same arguments were also presented at the meeting.

Finally, we all heard Tony's unambiguous legal opinion that the money was owed to OPSBA, and had been owed since September 1. He was clear that any decision by Board regarding Sam's motion would not alter our obligation to pay our 2013/2014 OPSBA fees.

In the context of this information I found it deeply disturbing and irregular for you to decide that, due to political considerations, the OPSBA fees wouldn't be paid for at least another week. This is the sort of irregular action that EY highlighted in their forensic audit.

Your decision to ignore Board instructions to pay OPSBA dues in a timely manner is incomprehensible to me. I and others hope to have a clear explanation of your reasons well before the Board meeting this coming Wednesday.

Most respectfully

Howard