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Ontario is increasing education spending by almost 4 per cent to $23.8 billion in the next school year, with a focus on providing more special education support and reducing class sizes, Education Minister Mitzie Hunter announced Wednesday.

Much of the thrust of the 2017-18 school year funding is a result of deals reached between the province and education unions earlier this year, which extended contracts by two years until August 2019, ensuring labour peace through next year’s election.

The education funding includes money to hire hundreds more special education teachers and support workers based on local need, and capping class sizes in full-day kindergarten as well as grades 4 through 8.

The news was welcomed as a step in the right direction by advocates, school boards and unions, who said it was good for students.

“I think it’s an example of where negotiations with teachers and support staff have resulted in something that’s good for education,” said Annie Kidder, executive director of the research and advocacy group People for Education.

The day after a scathing report detailed the dysfunction, “culture of fear” and a lack of leadership at the York Region public school board, trustees went beyond what was asked of them by the education minister and told embattled director J. Philip Parappally to step down, sources told the Star.

At a special board meeting Wednesday night, trustees said they had already met the first deadline put forward in a letter from Education Minister Mitzie Hunter outlining her 22 directives, and were making progress on many others.

Board chair Loralea Carruthers opened the meeting with strong words, and an apology.

“I’m so sorry, so very sorry that so many of you have been hurt so deeply and I’m sorry that our staff . . . have been hurt, too. And I’m so sorry that our kids, in particular have been exposed to the worst in people instead of the best,” she said. “I am sorry, and my colleagues are sorry. I apologize.”

“What will happen next is action, not empty words. And it won’t be action behind closed doors either,”

Gary Mattinas can’t go home, but for now he is content to focus on his health and work towards building a better life at Na-Me-Res.

“I want to stay in Toronto. I have got no choice,” said Mattinas, originally from outside Hearst, Ont. “I need to stay in a city where there is dialysis for me.”

Na-Me-Res is a multi-service agency for First Nations, Inuit and Métis men and Mattinas, 29, is one of 25 men living in a transitional housing building it operates on Vaughan Rd.

It means he has a clean, safe place to live and can get access to counselling and job training programs and help for kidney issues that require dialysis three days a week.

The types of programs Mattinas is using will soon get a significant boost, through $100 million in annual funding the province committed to on Thursday for supportive housing programs, starting in 2019.

The money is meant for counselling, addiction and mental health services and life skills programs and is open to all agencies involved in helping people find and keep housing across the province.