Province keeps school trustees but limits their role as Ottawa board remains under supervision

When voters head to the ballot box in this fall’s municipal election, they will still have a chance to elect trustees to advocate for the English Catholic and public school boards. But it remains unclear when — or if — those trustees will actually be able to govern.

The announcement came Monday from Education Minister Paul Calandra, who previously said he was considering removing the role entirely after multiple boards around the province, including the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, fell under supervision following controversies and unbalanced budgets.

Calandra gave no firm date for when control would be handed back to trustees, saying it would not happen until the province was convinced everything was in working order. 

When trustees do return, however, their role will look different.

Under Bill 101, the Putting Students First Act, introduced Monday at Queen’s Park, trustees would still be able to provide feedback on budgets. However, key financial decisions would shift to a new chief executive officer overseeing board operations alongside a chief education officer focused on student outcomes. Together, the two roles would replace the current director of education position.

In a press release, the province said the changes “would clearly define roles, strengthen accountability and close the gaps that have allowed failures in oversight.”

Catherine Milburn, the trustee for Orléans West–Innes and Beacon Hill–Cyrville, told the Lookout she has concerns about the new decision-making model.

“Trying to run a government like a business is not a successful model,” she said. “This is not for profit. This is public service.”

While relieved to see trustees will still have a place at the board table, Milburn said she sees the province as preserving the position while stripping away much of what once made it meaningful.

With budget authority further reduced and local influence curtailed, she said trustees risk becoming little more than a political buffer expected to absorb anger from families without having the tools to solve their problems.

“They are asking people for $10,000 for the term — or for the year — to put their name forward and to have very little control or say or influence,” she said. “Essentially, to be a rubber stamp for the ministry, but to take all of the heat from the community.”

Currently, trustees receive about $16,000 a year, which trustees have argued already works out to less than minimum wage.

Lyra Evans, trustee for Rideau–Vanier and Capital wards, also questioned why the province is keeping trustees when decision-making will fall to new senior leadership positions.

She said their powers have already been chipped away over time and that it’s becoming more difficult to leave a meaningful impact. Evans also worries about the kinds of candidates the job could now attract. 

“When I was first elected, there was a trustee expense account that could be used to support hosting meetings for the community to talk about the issues impacting our schools and our kids,” she said.  “They’re proposing to remove that kind of expense from trustees, which means you are either going to get trustees who are independently wealthy who can do these kinds of things, or you’re going to get trustees who are unable to do these kinds of things.”

Evans worries it will be hard to find candidates to put their name on the ballot; it can cost well over $10,000 to run an election campaign, and there is no commitment that they will be reimbursed if the board remains under supervision. 

Barrhaven trustee Donna Blackburn has a somewhat different viewpoint on all the changes and said the changes aren’t as drastic as they could have been.

“It’s kind of moving the chess pieces,” she said. “It’s not really, in my mind, like big fundamental changes.”

Even so, she questions the effectiveness of what’s been proposed and how it would save money. 

“It’s my hope that the minister will reinstate the current board of trustees and stop paying [supervisor] Bob Plamondon $350,000 a year for no reason. It would be much cheaper to have the slate of trustees in place,” she said. 

Alongside changes to trustee authority, the government is also moving ahead with adjustments to curriculum expectations, attendance rules and exam structures.

One of the most significant changes would require attendance to count toward final grades in high school courses, which Evans said raises concerns both about fairness and about how grades will be interpreted outside Ontario.

“One of the concerns I’ve heard is that people who are mentally unwell or chronically ill are going to be detrimentally impacted by an attendance requirement,” she said.

At the same time, she said broad exemptions could create another unintended consequence.

“If they make it so that anybody can get any absence excuse, we are going to see grade inflation,” she said. “We are beginning to artificially inflate the grades of students.”

She said that could affect how Ontario students are assessed when applying to post-secondary programs elsewhere in Canada.

Milburn also questioned the emphasis being placed on attendance as part of student evaluation.

“I find it very ironic when the legislature has such long breaks right now that they are calling on high school students … to have a big portion of their grades related to attendance,” she said.

The province is also restoring mandatory written exams on official exam days for secondary students — reversing pandemic-era adjustments that saw exams cancelled in some grades.

Evans noted those earlier exam changes were not decisions made by trustees in Ottawa.

“That was a decision implemented by the director of education at the time,” she said. “If people are really up in arms about that decision, the ministry is pointing fingers at trustees for a decision that was not the trustees’ decision.”

The governance changes are landing in Ottawa while the OCDSB remains under provincial supervision.

Robert Plamondon was named supervisor in June following a financial investigation that found the board had depleted its reserves and was carrying an accumulated deficit. The Ministry of Education said at the time that intervention was necessary to strengthen oversight and restore stability to the district’s finances and governance.

Trustees, however, say the situation was more nuanced than the province’s description suggested. While they acknowledge the board faced real financial pressures in previous years — particularly tied to rising costs in areas like special education — they note the district passed a balanced budget only a few months prior.

“The OCDSB was taken over under false pretences,” said Blackburn. “Their own auditors said there was no financial mismanagement.”

She also argued that governance tensions cited by the province had largely subsided before the intervention.

“Yes, there was acrimony between some of the trustees,” she said. “However, the person who caused the most acrimony had resigned. So any dysfunction that was happening left.”

In November, Plamondon announced that director of education Pino Buffone was relieved of his duties but never specified why.

Before heading the role in Ottawa, Buffone also served as the director of education for the Renfrew County District School Board for more than six years and previously held several senior roles at the OCDSB, including superintendent.

“[Buffone] was a very well respected director, not only here in Ottawa, but throughout the province of Ontario,” Blackburn said. 

Evans had somewhat of a different view but would not elaborate further.

“There is a lot of information that you are not allowed to talk about outside of a board meeting,” she said. “I don’t think I’m in a fair position to comment on that.”

She noted she disagreed with some decisions made while Buffone was director but said she could not assess what happened after the supervisor assumed control.

Stacey Kay, manager of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority, was immediately named as Buffone’s successor. Kay began her career with the board as a speech-language pathologist in 2001 and later served as general manager of learning support services before leaving for OSTA in December 2024.

Special-education families say uncertainty remains despite a pause on earlier program changes.

For families of students in specialized programming, there are concerns about how the new grading structure and exam requirements could affect their success. But they also worry about how parents in similar situations will navigate the system if trustees lose further decision-making authority.

Kathy Varrette’s son struggled in the traditional classroom setting before being enrolled in a specialized program in 2022. Before that, he spent much of the day running the halls and helping to deliver milk — often alone and unable to participate in classroom activities with peers.

“He’s developmentally delayed. So, although he may be in grade six and he may be 11 years old, he plays more like a toddler,” Varrette told the Lookout. “So, having him in a classroom where he’s with his developmental peers that are also playing like toddlers, that are around the same age as him, is actually way more beneficial than trying to stick him in a classroom where they’re doing long division with the other grade sixes.”

Specialized programs like the one Varrette’s son attends were at one time at risk of being cut. Earlier proposals under the board’s Elementary Program Review would have phased out several specialized education programs over time.

After taking control of the district, Plamondon moved to halt parts of that broader restructuring process, signalling the board was not in a position to move forward with the earlier implementation approach.

“These are the students that have acute needs, who have every right to have the best possible education within the framework of the policies and the funding that they have, and (should have) every opportunity to succeed,” Plamondon said at an OCDSB Special Education Advisory Committee in November, adding there are many other places where savings could come from.

Blackburn noted Plamondon still cut a social worker, speech and language pathologists and psychologists — “all things that help enhance student well-being, which enhance attendance, which apparently now the minister is very concerned about.”

Varrette hopes specialized programs will continue to flourish and be funded under the new model. She said that over the years, it was trustees who helped set up that kind of learning environment for her son.

“They’re the ones that are able to go in there and basically dictate policy and say this is a problem that these children are not being supported,” she said. “With the way it’s currently going to be rolled out, they will have none of that. They will be trustees in name without any ability to do anything.”

Candidates can begin registering to run for school board trustee in mid-May. 

Blackburn, who had previously suggested she might seek a Barrhaven city council seat, said she now plans to run for trustee again. Evans intends to step away from school board politics and will instead run municipally in Rideau–Vanier Ward, which is currently represented by Stephanie Plante. Milburn declined to comment on her plans.