The Lambton Kent District School (LKDSB) has completely rewritten its travel and related expenses regulation and is now utilizing a new travel request form, months after school boards across the province were scrutinized for discretionary spending.
Revisions to the document, Travel and Related Expenses While Performing Board Business, were approved during a recent school board meeting.
Associate Director of Corporate Services Brian McKay said while the regulation has been completely rewritten, minor changes were made to the policy statement.
"The regulation at this time was about three years old so it was getting to the point where we did need to review it. We decided that really we needed to do a complete rewrite and reflect in 2025 what the current requirements were with respect to travel," McKay said. "Basically we started from scratch and rewrote the whole document."
The travel regulation was last reviewed on March 29, 2022.
McKay said these types of documents are typically assessed within a five year period, but items of this nature are preferred to be reviewed at least once per trustee term (four years).
McKay said the changes were not "exclusively" a result of last year's trip to Hawaii to attend an International Conference on Education, originally reported by CBC.
"That was a factor when we did go through and review it," he said. "I think it was also a result of what we're seeing in the entire education sector. Obviously, when we look at these regulations, we don't operate with just only what's going on at the LKDSB, we see what's going on in other boards and the overall environment out there."
The Ford government called for an audit of discretionary spending at all public and Catholic school boards in November 2024. At the time, MPP Bob Bailey said the LKDSB trip was the latest in a series of discoveries surrounding questionable spending at Ontario school boards.
A school board in nearby London, the Thames Valley District School Board, was also questioned last year for spending upwards of $38,000 on a trip to Toronto.
"We were hyperaware of the overall need to address a number of items in the new regulation that were kind of sector-wide, as well as Ministry of Education driven," McKay said.
In regards to the audit, McKay said they haven't heard anything further from the province.
"My guess is, just as part of the normal budget process, that we'll be starting soon for next year for 2025/2026, is there might be some items to overall school boards within those documents," he said. "There have been obviously communications to the school boards about the importance of discretionary spending and watching board discretionary spending. So, it's kind of been messaging out to all school boards, not just LKDSB specifically."
As part of the recent changes, the school board now has a new travel form for staff to fill out.
"A new process involves a travel request form where we're looking at budget, we're looking at the actual needs and requirements of that travel," McKay said. "How does it relate back to the overall strategic objectives of the board to make sure there's good rationale for that travel outside of Ontario."
The LKDSB's travel budget for 2024-2025 was just over $1.14 million, down from just under 1.17 million in 2023-2024.
However, McKay said the budget doesn't distinguish between out-of-country travel and trips within Ontario.
He said since the school board covers such a large area, from Grand Bend to Wheatley, the majority of the budget is used to support travel expenses between LKDSB buildings.
McKay provided Sarnia News Today with the school board's travel budget over the past five years, which can be found below.
-With files from Stephanie Chaves
