For weeks now, an angry buzz has been growing louder around the Peel District School Board’s handling of anti-Black racism. On Thursday, the Ministry of Education declared its intent to get cracking with an immediate review of the board and how its leadership is dealing with it.

“Allegations related to equity in the Peel District School Board have raised concerns, specifically related to anti-Black racism and lack of adherence to governance, leadership, and human resources practices,” Education Minister Stephen Lecce said in a statement.

Problem stated.

Problem not solved.

Problem escalated.

All good, then?

Apparently not.

A separate statement by the chair and vice-chair of the Peel board of trustees that should have clarified and brought feuding sides on common ground, instead, points to further fissures within the board.

The ministry said it was launching the review in response to concerns raised by families, students, the board’s director of education, the board of trustees and community members.

The board issued a statement from chair Stan Cameron and vice-chair Susan Lawton saying that it had written a letter to the ministry Oct. 17. “We made a commitment to work on our governance and so we reached out to the Ministry of Education for support.”

But Cameron and Lawton did not consult their fellow trustees about this decision.

The Star received a copy of an email Cameron sent to all trustees at 9.34 p.m. Wednesday (the board’s public statement was released mid-day Thursday) informing them of their letter to the ministry. In that email he says “With all that was and is going on in my life, I didn't forward the letter to you. I apologize. I should have included everyone.”

Cameron confirmed to the Star that the other trustees had not been consulted through a formal motion. “A motion to send a letter to the Ministry seeking their support was not made. In our roles as chair and vice-chair, we felt that we needed to reach out to the ministry for support to put us back on the path to good governance,” said Cameron Thursday.

At a public meeting Oct. 22, a member of the community openly asked if it was time for the ministry to “take over” the board. Neither Lawton who has been chairing the increasingly confrontational public meetings in Cameron’s absence, nor director of education Peter Joshua who has been present at the meetings, mentioned this letter.

“The comment made at the Oct. 22 (meeting) as we understood it, was a suggestion that the ministry needed to take the Board over, which we took under advisement. Now that the ministry has responded to our request we are able to address this publicly,” Cameron said in his email.

It’s not at all clear if the board is asking for intervention to help itself, as it faces demands of accountability from Black and brown community members, or for the ministry to review its own leadership around anti-Black racism.

“Given the many circumstances taking place we ask that your office offer our board some assistance and intervention in what has become an increasingly difficult board to manage,” reads the board’s letter to Nancy Naylor, the Deputy Minister of Education, provided to the Star by Cameron.

The second issue thrown up by the board statement was regarding the next public meeting.

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“Given this intervention, we will not hold the Regular Meeting of the Board on Nov. 13, 2019,” the statement said.

But the board had planned to cancel the board meeting well before this announcement. Three days prior, an assistant to the trustees sent them an email. “Let me know if you’re planning to attend” she wrote, naming five of the 12 trustees who were not attending: Cameron, Lawton, Brad MacDonald, Carrie Andrews and Balbir Sohi. By Wednesday, trustees were verbally told that a sixth, Will Davies, would not be attending. The board needs seven attendees for quorum.

Was the meeting cancelled due to the intervention or did they not plan to hold the meeting anyway?

Cameron confirmed to the the Star the board did not have quorum by Wednesday.

“Given that we didn’t have quorum, and with the news of the review, a decision was made to not hold the meeting,” Cameron said.

At least three senior staff in Peel said they could not recall the last time a public meeting was cancelled for lack of quorum, not even during contentious issues of changes to the sex-ed curriculum or protests against accommodations for Muslim students.

Trustee McDonald and Nokha Dakroub said they intend to show up to the board meeting on Nov. 13. “I will sit in my chair for 30 minutes. If, after 30 minutes, we do not achieve quorum as our by-laws stipulate, I will adjourn the meeting and go home,” Dakroub said.

“Stan Cameron cannot cancel a meeting with a tweet,” said McDonald.

The meetings have been becoming increasing heated. At the Oct. 10 meeting, community members protested trustee Will Davies referring to McCrimmon Public school, a school with predominantly Black and brown students, as McCriminal in a comment. They were repeatedly stonewalled by vice-chair Lawton whose only response in the face of tears, stories, experiences of racism in Peel schools that people shared was that they go to the Integrity Comissioner. Lawton apologized for this at the next meeting.

Davies who made the remark in April apologized after the first version of a story on that meeting was published in the Star in October. The board also acknowledged that not issuing a public statement left Black and brown community members feeling abandoned.

The board had denied Black community members a chance to make formal presentations at that meeting. Three Peel school board trustees including McDonald and Dakroub who raised objections said their actions are being investigated by the Integrity commissioner.

Separately, the board’s associate director of equity Poleen Grewal took the entire board and Joshua to the Human Rights Tribunal complaining of racism, harassment and creation of a poisonous environment.