The Ford government will be taking control of four school boards across Ontario, including Ottawa’s largest board. Read MoreChartered professional accountant Robert Plamondon, who has a 35-year career in governance, finance, public policy and public administration, has been named supervisor
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Chartered professional accountant Robert Plamondon, who has a 35-year career in governance, finance, public policy and public administration, has been named supervisor
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The Ford government will be taking control of four school boards across Ontario, including Ottawa’s largest board.
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In a statement released on Friday morning, the province said it has appointed supervisor to the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to address concerns of financial “mismanagement” and growing deficits.
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“The OCDSB has completely depleted its reserves, incurred an accumulated deficit, and plans to use unsustainable proceeds from asset sales to balance its books,” said the Ministry of Education’s statement.
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Supervisors will also be appointed to the Toronto District School Board, the Toronto Catholic District School Board and the Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board.
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The Evening Citizen
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Ontario Minister of Education Paul Calandra said each of these school boards failed in their responsibilities to parents and students.
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“I have made it clear that if a school board veers off its mandate, I will take action to restore focus, rebuild trust and put students first,” he said.
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Robert Plamondon has been appointed as supervisor for the OCDSB. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Professional Accountants with a 35-year career in governance, finance, public policy and public administration.
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The supervisors “bring extensive experience in government, financial management and public accountability, and were selected for their strong track records of leadership and oversight,” said the Ministry of Education.
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“These supervisors will represent the ministry’s vested control, overseeing and managing the administration of the boards, including financial management, policy implementation and operational oversight. They will provide the ministry with regular updates on their work, focus on addressing the deteriorating financial positions of the boards and identify where they can implement savings measures and improve operational efficiencies.”
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The news of provincial supervision comes just weeks after the OCDSB, which had four previous deficit budgets, passed a balanced budget that included $18.1 million in cuts.
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The OCDSB was facing $80 million in cost pressures as it contemplated its 2026-26 budget. It had spent $31.5 million for supply teachers and other replacement staff this school year, for example. That’s better than previous years, but the Ministry of Education pays about 14.7 million for replacement staff, leaving the board to pay $16.8 million.
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Meanwhile, there were about 17,000 vacant student spaces at the board, but schools can’t be closed because of provincial moratorium on closings. It costs about $20 million to maintain underused schools, and the money must come from other programs, according to the OCDSB.
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Trustee Donna Blackburn said she was not surprised at the announcement. Trustees have failed to understand that they have to make decisions that are fiscally responsible, she said.
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For example, trustees have voted in the past not to close underused schools and to keep funding a summer learning program for students with developmental delays when the program didn’t get provincial funding, said Blackburn.
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Trustees also decided to retain alternative schools, even though a staff report advised closing them, and voted to scrap the school resource officer program that saw police officers assigned to schools. (Last month, trustees voted to phase out alternative schools as part of a review of elementary programs. Meanwhile, the province has announced that it plans to introduce legislation that will require school boards to implement a school resource officer program if one is available.)
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With the OCDSB is under supervision, board staff won’t have to waste time on meetings and keeping trustees happy instead of spending time on student achievement and well-being, said Blackburn. “Trustees are more concerned about activism.”
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However, Blackburn said she is cautiously optimistic the supervisor appointed by the province will realize that the board is underfunded, particularly in special education.
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“My hope is that something good can come of this.”
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Trustee Lyra Evans said she was shocked at the province’s announcement.
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“We passed a balanced budget, which was the ministry’s demand,” she said.
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The Minister of Education has the power to override local democracy, said Trustee Lyra. That power was used in the past to take away local school boards’ ability to raise taxes to fund education.
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Meanwhile, issues such as setting classroom sizes and contract bargaining with teachers’ unions once managed locally are now managed by the province and not local school boards, she said.
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“When everything is determined centrally, there is little ability for school boards to solve local concerns.”
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The province’s announcement has Trustee Lyra thinking about the role of elected trustees and her own future as a trustee.
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“I’m not sure I want to lend my name as a trustee and the legitimacy that entails to the board if there is not the ability to meaningfully provide input,” she said.
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“What is the point of being a trustee if I can’t represent my constituents in a meaningful way?”
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Many local school boards, including the OCDSB, have argued that school boards are underfunded. The OCDSB has been spending $14 million more on special education than it gets in provincial funding.
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According to analysis by the Ontario Public School Boards Association released in May, there’s a province-wide funding gap of more than $1 billion.
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The province argues that it has provided “record funding” for education, including $30.3 billion in 2025-26, $2 billion to renew and improve schools and $1.3 billion through the Capital Priorities program to support new schools and expansions.
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Stephanie Kirkey, president of the Ottawa-Carleton unit of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said nobody likes waste, but it has become clear that underfunding is that the root of the issues the board is facing.
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“It’s not just our board, it’s boards across the province. This appears to be a distraction,” Kirkey said of the province’s takeover.
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“At the end of the day, students deserve properly-funded schools. That’s not too say the (OCDSB) decisions have always been perfect. But it’s time for some real investments instead of undermining local decision-making,” she said.
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“If the ministry really does care about back-to-basics, we have no problem improving student outcomes. But we need the proper funding to do that.”
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Kate Dudley Logue, vice president of community outreach for the Ontario Autism Coalition, called the province’s announcement “an alarming direction.”
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Parents, educators and advocacy groups have been sounding the alarm about the lack of supports in schools for years, she said.
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“Students with special education needs are not accessing curriculum, are often not safe and many are not even in school at all for large amounts of time due to the school board’s inability to safely support them,” said Dudley Logue.
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“These school boards are trying desperately to manage the increasing amounts of complex needs while being consistently underfunded by the ministry. Every year they are forced to make cuts when they know that students with disabilities are not being properly supported. It’s distressing to wrap your head around what further cuts to special education could be coming with ministry supervision.”
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Some parents hope the province’s supervisor will ask for reconsideration of the OCDSB’s controversial elementary program review that would see sweeping changes, including school boundary changes and phasing out alternative schools.
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Jane Harley, the parent of one student at Devonshire Public School and another about to enter kindergarten in September, said the elementary program review process showed that trust has been badly broken between the community an the OCDSB.
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“The Ministry of Education listened when the OCDSB trustees did not,” she said.
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“I hope that the new provincial supervisor will use this opportunity to suspend the deeply-flawed implementation of the elementary program review and do this right in a way that makes sense for students, families, educators and taxpayers.”
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