The Peel District School Board (PDSB) says a recent flyer distributed by wards 7 and 8 Coun. Charmaine Williams -- sent home with some students and advertising a town-hall meeting -- was deemed political in nature and in violation of board rules.

The flyers, which advertised a Jan. 14 town hall regarding the city’s BramptonU initiative on one side and featured a promotional acceptance certificate to the non-existent university on the other, was distributed to an unknown number of students to take home to their parents.

The city confirmed the town hall was organized and hosted by Williams and her office. While city media spokesperson Natalie Stogdill said the town hall meeting was a city sanctioned event, the city didn’t say it was sanctioning the flyer promoting it.

"I circulated 10,000 Brampton University certificates to students at schools in ward 7 & 8. The certificates inspire students to pursue a university education in the future. On the back of that certificate was an invitation for students and their parents to attend the city-sanctioned BramptonU town hall meeting,” Williams told the Guardian.

PDSB spokesperson Ryan Reyes said the flyers are considered political in nature, and that a “community member” had issued a complaint about the flyers being sent home with students.

“The flyer did contain information that was political in nature that does not comply with our Distribution of Materials operating procedure that says: ‘Materials received by the Board containing political, religious, faith-related or inappropriate information is not approved for distribution via students in Peel Board schools,’ ” said Reyes, adding some schools sent the flyers home when they shouldn’t have.

“As the City of Brampton is a community partner, there are times when we do share information about events taking place in the community that the City of Brampton hosts that are not political in nature. As such, some schools made the decision to send home the flyer. We have not tracked this, so we do not know which specific schools, number of schools or how many students were provided with the flyers,” Reyes said.

Williams confirmed she gave the flyers to school administrators to distribute to students, adding she also received a complaint from a resident over the flyers.

"All certificates were given to school administration to decide the best way to distribute them. Out of 10,000 certificates, I received only one complaint from a constituent and 171 residents attended the town hall meeting," she said.

The PDSB said it has since issued a reminder to all schools in wards 7 and 8 in response to the flyers, reminding teachers and administrators of the rules surrounding what can and can’t be distributed and sent home with students.