The public outcry over reported lavish and questionable expenditures – from a costliest overseas trip to Italy, to a closely monitored taxpayer-funded Blue Jays retreat – wasn’t enough, Ontario Education Minister Jill Dunlop recently served notice that future school board audits will zero in on discretionary spending of trustees and senior administrators.

In the past few weeks, school boards have faced criticism over their spending habits. The latest incident saw trustees in the Brantford area expense a trip to Italy at $45,000, which included a $100,000 splurge on artwork. In London, Ontario, a local school board spent about $40,000 for a retreat at the Blue Jays stadium hotel and another southwestern Ontario district allotted $32,000 for a Hawaii conference attended by three staff members. These and similar reports have drawn to light the impropriety of this kind of spending, especially given the persistent funding problems in schools.

Minister Dunlop, who characterized the revelations as shocking, said that discretionary spending would now have more influence on the audits that are to be put in place as new legislations under the recently passed Better Schools and Student Outcomes Act. She said, “I’m a newly appointed Minister of Education and I was equally shocked to see this matter repeatedly landing on my desk week after week.”

Audits, which are slated to begin in the coming months, are part of a wide-ranging government scheme to increase the transparency and accountability in the school board’s finances. Although the ministry did not clarify exactly how such audits would occur, it said the checkup should ensure that public money is spent on the outcomes of students rather than paying for wasteful spending.

Even Ontario’s premier, Doug Ford, weighed in on the scandal, referring to the spending as “unacceptable,” while promising to act to ensure that spending is done responsibly. “This money is to be spent in the classroom, not on these perky trips,” Dunlop added.