Ontario’s education minister says there are “no immediate plans” to reinstate trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB), even though voters are set to elect 10 new trustees in Ottawa’s public school board this month. The Ontario government took control of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in June 2025 and removed the 12 elected trustees after the board posted four straight deficit budgets. Robert Plamondon has been appointed supervisor of the OCDSB to oversee the board and the budget process. While candidates are running for OCDSB trustees in the Oct. 26 municipal election, Education Minister Paul Calandra says newly elected trustees will not be reinstated after the election. “I have no intention of returning the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board to trustees anytime in the very near future,” Calandra told reporters at the opening of the new Brian Mulroney Elementary School. “We not only need to balance the budget but make sure that the board is on a long-term stable path. So, no immediate plans. I appreciate that there are people running should we ever return the board back to trustees, and it’s good to know that there will be trustees in place to assume that responsibility.” The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board is projecting a $3.5 million deficit this school year, with officials calling it “transitional.” In July, the OCDSB said, “optimizing central administrative functions and reducing costs, the District avoided what would have been an $18.5 million deficit.” Calandra says Plamondon and OCDSB CEO Stacey Kay have made some “really good progress,” including reducing spending in the head office. “They’ve redirected money back into the classroom in a board that has declining enrolment,” Calandra said, raising concerns about declining enrolment at the public school board. “I’m very confident that Bob and Stacey and the entire OCDSB team will bring us back to balance. But as we said, don’t impact the classroom. I know a lot of decisions had been made in the past that were taken, which impacted outside of the classroom.” There are 33 candidates running for trustee in the 12 OCDSB zones. “We’re not having a challenge finding people who want to run for school boards, so there are no boards that won’t have a full contingent of trustees,” Calandra said. The Ontario government has instituted new rules for trustees in all English public and Catholic school boards following the election. The new chief executive officer position in school boards will lead budget development, instead of the trustees. The changes include capping the honoraria for trustees at a maximum of $10,000 and requiring trustees to pay out of pocket for certain external organization membership fees. “We’ve given the trustees the ability to do what they said was the most important part of their job: represent parents, and the honorarium, you know, reflects that,” Calandra said. Three of the 10 trustees in the Ottawa Catholic School Board have been acclaimed for the new term. Scott Phelan in Zone 1, Sandra Moore in Zone 2 and Brian Coburn in Zone 3 were the only candidates registered to run in the zones. Voters will elect a mayor, councillor and school board trustee on Oct. 26.
