By Peter Moore
Parents are asking questions after three months with Robert Plamondon as the provincially-appointed Supervisor of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). The last two weeks have highlighted the disconnect between Plamondon, the parents of children attending the schools under his watch, and the media.
Parents have only received three emails from Plamondon since he took over in July and requested feedback, as reported by The Leveller. His October 7 email announced the decision to cancel a plan to streamline the school board’s elementary school program and to balance the school board’s deficit.
The elected school board trustees and staff created the plan after public consultations launched in April 2024. The review involved dozens of meetings with parents, teachers, principals, advisory committees, education and support worker unions and school councils, including three town halls and an online survey that received 2,260 responses.
The approved plan a simplified elementary program, some catchment area changes, the phasing out of the Alternative elementary program, and budget savings.
Plamondon said the school board was “not in a position to implement such sweeping changes fairly or effectively.”
In his email, Plamondon wrote: “After extensive consultation with parents, educators, and students, I have concluded that the changes planned to elementary education would have been highly disruptive for students and families. The EPR changes would possibly have required thousands of students to change schools due to programming changes, placing stress on families and forcing many to navigate a complicated exemption process just to remain in their current school community.”
Plamondon described his plan as “a new approach, shaped by what we heard from parents and educators during consultations. The OCDSB will gradually reduce the number of program streams where it is practical to do so and where students are not compelled to change schools. This new approach will include two elementary program streams, French Immersion and English with Core French, offered as early as grade 1… This will take time to implement across the District.”
Parents questioned whether Plamondon did enough to communicate with stakeholders and the public before making his decision.
“He’s only providing [answers] after he has been repeatedly pressured to do so.” – MPP Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West-Nepean)
“There has been almost no communication about what the supervisor has done since he was appointed. Most of the information that has been released is vague and lacking in specificity as to the impact his decisions will have for our students,” said Amanda Case, Co-Chair of the Churchill Alternative School Council. “We are not aware of any additional community consultations initiatives since the Supervisor assumed his role.”
Plamondon is going ahead with the plan to phase-out the Alternative elementary program, which would lead to the closure of the board’s five Alternative schools, Lady Evelyn, Riverview, Churchill, Regina Street, and Summit.
“We are very disappointed to hear that the supervisor will continue the moratorium on enrollment into available Alternative School grades during the time the program is being phased out… the board should make all of its programs available to all students within the board, instead of barring entrance into a program that theoretically may continue until our current crop of JK (junior kindergarten) students complete Grade 8,” said Case.
The lack of communication from Plamondon prompted questions from parents, suspended school board trustees, and the media at the October 15 school board Parent Involvement Committee meeting.
Normally, committee meetings are live streamed by the board. This time, meeting participants were asked to sign a paper waiving recording rights without the consent of everyone in the room. When a parent attempted to livestream it with their mobile phone, the vice-chair asked her to stop.
When reporters in the meeting asked questions, Plamondon told them he was not the board’s media spokesperson.
“You know, you may not hear from me in the media. That’s not my mandate,” said Plamondon as reported by the Ottawa Citizen on October 16. CBC quoted him as saying: “The official spokesperson for this board is the minister of education and the ministry.”
In an October 16 follow-up email to parents, Plamondon clarified that Education Minister Paul Calandra, “who has control and charge over the administration of the board,” made the decision to cancel the elementary program changes.
In the same email, Plamondon said, “the very large majority of email respondents expressed profound appreciation and relief following the cancellation of the EPR. This sentiment was articulated with deep emotion and gratitude by averting a disruption to children and families, the preservation of established school communities, and relief from significant personal stress. Many parents welcome a return to stability after a period of intense uncertainty. Many parents perceived the decision as a return to ‘common sense.’”
New Democratic Party education critic and local MPP Chandra Pasma (Ottawa West-Nepean) said she sees “red flags” in Plamondon and the education minister’s approach.
“He’s only providing [answers] after he has been repeatedly pressured to do so,” she said. “I think it means other cuts are coming and he’s just not telling us.”
She said she is particularly concerned about special education. “Special education is an easy target for cuts but it’s doing a lot of harm to the kids we should be investing in.”
Pasma, who has children in the public school system, attended an education protest on October 16 at the constituency office of Ottawa’s only Conservative MPP, George Darouze.
“Parents are outraged this is happening,” Pasma said. “They cannot believe their rights are being attacked in this way. Nobody was asking (the province) to take their rights away.”
To date, there is no public timeline on how long Plamondon will be in the job or whether the province will allow school board trustee elections to happen in October 2026.
New legislation may hint at the government’s future approach to elected school boards.
In May 2025, Education Minister Calandra introduced new legislation called the Supporting Children and Students Act. The new bill would greatly expand the minister’s power to suspend or order school boards to comply with his orders, removing the current requirement to have an external auditor investigate school boards before taking action.
“The Minister of Education is faced with an antiquated process that requires me to bring in a third-party auditor and then rely on a recommendation from a third party as to whether the ministry should assume its role, its responsibilities, and take over or assume responsibility for a school board. So, even in instances where we absolutely know that a board has gone off the rails, that they have no desire to come back into a balanced position, the minister must rely on a third party to report back and give me a recommendation,” Calandra told the Ontario legislature during the second reading debates on June 5.
The new bill would also require school boards to bring police back into schools with “access to school premises, (and) permit them to participate in school programs and implement school resource officer programs.”
The minister would also be given the power to name and veto the renaming of public schools.
“No longer are we going to be basing the names of schools on how we can rewrite our history and how we can erase history,” said Calandra during the second reading debates in the legislature, referring to the Toronto District School Board’s attempts to rename schools.
“Why is the minister grabbing more power (for) himself when it’s very clear that it’s the minister who should be put under supervision?” asked Pasma during the debate.
Calandra responded by saying he was within his rights to do so.
“To be clear, school boards exist because Parliament allows them to exist. That is all,” Calandra responded. “In this instance, Parliament, with this bill, is reasserting, reassuming, some of those powers that we devolved to school boards. We’re taking those powers back.”
In the same debate, Calandra advocated again for the centralization of school oversight. “This bill allows us to reassume the power that we once had that was devolved and that now needs to come back to the ministry to ensure students, parents and teachers have the best ability to get our kids graduated for the jobs of tomorrow.”
The proposed changes raised concerns that the provincial government may be considering removing school boards with elected trustees. It would be a big change. Ontario schools have had school boards with elected trustees overseeing their affairs since before Confederation.
“School boards exist to operate schools and to act as intermediaries between the provincial government and local needs and concerns. Although they are corporations, their powers and duties are conferred on them by the provincial legislature and the government,” according to historian Xiabin Li of Brock University.
School boards pay for their operations through municipal taxes and funding from the provincial government.
“We’re going to fight hard at the legislature,” said Pasma. “Ultimately, it’s up to parents to fight this.”
