Halton's public school trustees, including Burlington's, ran up $46,890.11 in expenses that the Halton District School Board paid or reimbursed in the 2025-2026 school year, the last full year of their term, according to a report set for a special board meeting Thursday, Nov. 12.
The board runs Halton's English public schools and is governed by 11 trustees, elected for four-year terms in the municipal election. Each had access to $6,000 a year for personal professional development, meetings and office supplies.
Conferences and courses were the biggest cost. Registration, hotels and meals for professional development made up the largest category, ahead of phone and internet bills and travel. Some $22,074.79 in professional development was charged to the trustees' prior-term reserve.
That reserve, a pot of unspent money carried from earlier years, held $89,288 as of Aug. 31. It won't follow the trustees into the next term: the province's interim expense policy ends the carry-over. Ontario's Bill 101, the Putting Student Achievement First Act, 2026, gave the education minister power to set rules for school board expense policies.
The current term ends Nov. 14. From Nov. 15, under a new provincial regulation, a Halton public school trustee's honorarium is $9,000 and the chair's is $10,000.
Burlington's trustees for the new term are Bika Diakoloukas (Wards 1 and 2, acclaimed), Xin Yi Zhang (Wards 3 and 6), Dania Thurman (Ward 4) and Amy Collard (Ward 5, acclaimed).
Chief financial officer Roxana Negoi is presenting the summary, Report 26097, at the meeting, which runs 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. at the J.W. Singleton Education Centre, 2050 Guelph Line, and is livestreamed on hdsb.ca and the board's YouTube channel.
A breakdown of what each trustee spent is to be posted on the board's website by Dec. 31.
