Toronto taxpayers have cut a cheque to Toronto District School Board trustees for a trip to Israel, cellphone bills from tropical islands, and a charter flights over the Alberta oilsands, internal documents show.

Those are just a few of the expenses scrutinized in a confidential audit of how Toronto District School Board trustees spent their $27,000 annual expense accounts between 2010 and January 2014.

CTV Toronto obtained the audit report through an access-to-information request, and got it back with many pages blacked out.

What’s clear in the pages visible is that although all charges were approved by the former director or chair, many councillors have expensed things that the public might question.

  • Gerri Gershon, of Don Valley West, charged $3,765 for a trip to Israel when she was part of an "interfaith delegation." She says it was important to her work as trustee.
     
  • Gershon also spent $23 on a book at an airport, which the report said appears to have been a personal expense. She says the book was about education.
     
  • Irene Atkinson, of Parkdale-High Park, expensed a $250 parking ticket.
     
  • John Hastings, trustee for Etobicoke North, charged for a hotel room in Richmond, B.C., that he says was used in between flights to meet with people from the Calgary Board of Education.
     
  • Hastings also charged $205 for a charter flight to see the Alberta oilsands, which he says was related to a high-school course.
     
  • Despite living in the city, four trustees charged the TDSB to stay for one to two nights at the Sheraton Hotel downtown during a conference.
     
  • Chris Bolton, who was TDSB chair until recently, is one of several people who expensed alcohol, which is not eligible. Bolton later reimbursed some of the money.
     
  • Trustees also expensed for tech gadgets like an iPad tablet and a $658 phone.
     
  • Trustees expensed for phone calls from sunny locales including Greece, the Virgin Islands and Barbados. Trustees said the calls were work-related.

Donna Quan -- TDSB director since Chris Spence resigned in January 2013 -- says that there has been more scrutiny since the audit took place and that many things approved in the past aren’t allowed under her watch.

A new expense policy was passed in May, and all councillors will soon be required to post their expenses online.The TDSB’s 22 trustees are elected at the same time as the Toronto mayor and Toronto city council. Toronto’s next municipal election is Oct. 27.