Trustees in the crosshairs, school violence, a school board data breach, college program cuts, a provincewide college strike, and our local university taking the last steps in finally emerging from the shadow of its CCAA journey made 2025 a wild ride for the local education sector.
‘Local voice of trustees is being eroded’
Acclaimed to his third term as the Rainbow District School Board’s chair in November, trustee David Farrow admitted he could “very well be” the board’s last ever chair.
That’s because Ontario Education Minister Paul Calandra has been musing about eliminating trustees, especially those at English public boards.
Calandra has also taken control of six school boards, recently including Sudbury’s neighbouring board, the Near North District School Board, effectively sidelining trustees at those boards.
School boards have been ordered to set up Student and Family Support Offices in 2026 to “give families clear answers and timely solutions” as the province continues to overhaul an “outdated school board governance model.”
“I’m sure it’s to deal with the trustee situation in the province,” Farrow told us in November. “It just feels like the local voice of trustees is being eroded time and time again. Do I think that the government is probably looking at a new governance model for trustees? Yes. But what's that going to look like? Who knows.”
Sudbury school violence spiked post-COVID
Meanwhile, teachers’ unions have been speaking out against a growing problem with violence in Ontario schools.
Sudbury.com set out to acquire statistics on violence in Sudbury schools, and ended up having to file freedom of information requests with three of four local school boards.
The stats at most boards show an increase in incidents reported to the province following the COVID-19 pandemic. A Global News report this fall also showed the same trend in Ontario schools provincewide.
“There's people being scratched, kicked, bit, spit on, and it's almost like we have no way just to stop it,” a Sudbury teacher told us.
Data breaches, ransomware attacks and more FOIs
In February, the Rainbow board was hit with a ransomware cyber incident, which involved a shutdown of its IT systems for several days, impacting schools, and a massive data breach.
The board recently issued an update to the community, saying Social Insurance Numbers, bank account information, salaries, addresses and even grades going back to as early as the 1960s are among the information likely compromised.
But the risk of data misuse is believed to be low, said Rainbow.
With the school board tight-lipped about the incident last winter, we filed a freedom of information request, and learned the nature of the cyber incident was a ransomware attack, and a ransom demand was made.
We also sought to find out through our filing how much was demanded through the ransom, if a ransom was paid, and if so, how much, but that portion of our request was denied, and we have since appealed.
During a recent Rainbow board meeting, superintendent of business Adam Guilbault said he didn’t know the specific cost of the board’s cyber incident off hand, but the board’s insurance covered them up to $500,000.
Sudbury.com requested the cost of the cyber incident from board communications staff, but they told us only that it fell within the board’s insurance coverage of $500,000.
Laurentian University also experienced a major cyber incident in 2024 which resulted in extensive IT outage impacts, in which it also received a ransom demand (it did not pay).
We also used freedom of information requests in 2025 to get information on some unanswered questions in the Laurentian cyber incident.
Our request put the cost to Laurentian at almost $818,000, although that was later updated in its financial statements to actually be about $1 million. Laurentian is also hoping to have its costs covered through its insurance policy (which has a $250,000 deductable).
We also learned through a freedom of information request that more than 2,000 people are estimated to have been affected by Laurentian’s 2024 data breach.
Another area where we used freedom of information legislation in 2025 was to get contract details for former NOSM University dean Dr. Sarita Verma, Greater Sudbury’s top-paid public sector worker for 2024, who was paid $522,439, an almost $140,000 salary increase.
With NOSM University denying us the documents after an informal request following the Sunshine List release, we used an FOI to receive the contracts for both Verma and her successor, Dr. Michael Green.
Foreign visa cuts, enrolment and a college strike
The post-secondary sector continues to have a rough go of it following the federal government’s cuts to foreign student visa numbers and the number of programs where international student graduates are eligible for post-graduation work permits.
Both Cambrian College and Laurentian University have seen reduced international student enrolment, although Collège Boréal says its foreign student population is up. Meanwhile, domestic students are up at all three institutions.
Mostly in response to this situation, Cambrian cut new intake to 16 of its programs in 2025, and has projected a $1.4 million deficit for 2025-2026 after a decade of surpluses. The college also has areas of expansion, especially health-care programs.
With the international student situation as a backdrop, full-time support staff at Ontario’s colleges, including those at Cambrian College and Collège Boréal, went on strike for more than a month in the fall.
Represented by the Ontario Public Service Employees Union, the workers were seeking better wages, benefits and job security.
Students at Cambrian College shared with us their frustrations with the strike impacts, including snarled traffic at the college’s entrance.
Laurentian sells property to province for $53.5M to fund creditors’ pool
The wide-reaching consequences of Laurentian University’s decision to declare insolvency nearly five years ago now, on Feb. 1, 2021, continued to make the news in 2025.
The university has been taking the last steps to finally emerge from the shadows of its time under creditor protection under federal Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) legislation.
Most notably, it sold property to the province for $53.5 million to fund a pool of money for its creditors.
But although the sales were finalized in August, creditors still haven’t received their money.
A court hearing in December brought this a step closer to happening, but Laurentian’s faculty association doesn’t think affected current and former employees will receive cheques until the spring of 2026.
That same court hearing finalized a $3 million insurance payout for certain current and former Laurentian employees and retirees related to the depletion of their retiree benefits fund during the university’s insolvency.
The Laurentian University Faculty Association (LUFA) is also currently in contract talks with the university, and in November filed a Charter challenge against the province of Ontario.
It said an insolvency-era loan deal signed between Laurentian University and the province is interfering with collective bargaining.
Former KPMG auditor Laurie Bissonette was sanctioned by an accountants’ professional body in 2025 and fined $50,000 for failures in her audit of Laurentian University in the year before it declared insolvency.
Also grabbing the community’s interest in 2025 was Laurentian’s sale of the historic Bell Mansion, which is in poor repair, to local developer Devla Properties for $1.25 million. The building’s long-time occupant, the Art Gallery of Sudbury, had its final move-out in the spring.
The sale, from which proceeds will be used for Laurentian facilities renewal, was opposed by some community members.
Laurentian also had several good news stories that made headlines in 2025.
The university posted a $55.2 million surplus for 2024-2025, reflecting some property sales in that financial year.
Laurentian also received a $2.5 million donation from IAMGOLD for an innovation fund and $2 million from the Joyce Family Foundation for student bursaries. It also is taking nominations for a new chancellor after the last one, TVO’s Steve Paikin, resigned during the CCAA.
And in June, industry leaders and alumni held a reception in support of Laurentian and its president Lynn Wells, who joined the university in 2024.
“It means the world, not only to me, but to our faculty, our staff, our board members, it just is overwhelming,” Wells said.
She said she gets this question in the grocery store and on the street all the time: “How is Laurentian doing, really?” and “they’re a little bit afraid to ask. I can tell you, without a word of a lie, Laurentian is doing great.”
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s assistant editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.