Ottawa voters have elected trustees to represent the city’s four school boards, which include the Catholic and public boards in English and French.
While it’ll be business as usual for three of four school boards, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board trustees will hold no official meetings, receive no pay and have no responsibilities while the English public board remains under provincial supervision.
Like the mayor and councillors , trustees will also serve a four-year term.
Let’s take a look at the people recently elected into the trustee roles for the upcoming term.
Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB)
It’s still unclear when OCDSB trustees will be reinstated as Ottawa’s largest school board remains under provincial supervision . Yet, despite the uncertainty, all 12 zones were contested as voters elected a dozen trustees for the English public school board.
The only two incumbents in the race — Jennifer Jennekins in Zone 7 and Julia Fortey in Zone 2 — held onto their seats and were re-elected to serve another term. Fortey was originally appointed to the position in October 2024 to replace Alysha Aziz, who resigned in July 2024.
In August, eight trustee candidates also announced they’d be uniting under a shared statement of principles , in the name of restoring local governance and the decision-making of trustees.
Four of those trustee candidates were elected to the trustee positions, including John MacCrae in Zone 1, Emily Quaile in Zone 4, Keelin Pringnitz in Zone 10 and Cathy Varrette in Zone 12.
Here’s the full list of newly elected OCDSB trustees:
- Zone 1: John MacCrae was elected with 61.8 per cent of the vote
- Zone 2: Julia Fortey was elected with 66.1 per cent of the vote
- Zone 3: Brenda Abramson was elected with 43.7 per cent of the vote
- Zone 4: Emily Quaile was elected with 78.1 per cent of the vote
- Zone 5: Lara Bremner was elected with 46.8 per cent of the vote
- Zone 6: Jennifer Moroziuk was elected with 40.2 per cent of the vote
- Zone 7: Jennifer Jennekens was elected with 60.8 per cent of the vote
- Zone 8: Rick Bédard was elected with 62.8 per cent of the vote
- Zone 9: Hilary Clauson was elected with 65.2 per cent of the vote
- Zone 10: Keelin Pringnitz was elected with 47.4 per cent of the vote
- Zone 11: Alan Riddell was elected with 49.7 per cent of the vote
- Zone 12: Cathy Varrette was elected with 70 per cent of the vote
Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB)
Trustee candidates were only on the ballot in half of the Ottawa Catholic School Board zones, as five of 10 trustee candidates were acclaimed after no one stepped up to run against them.
Acclaimed trustees include Scott Phelan in Zone 1, Sandra Moore in Zone 2, Brian Coburn in Zone 3, Joanne MacEwan in Zone 5 and Mark D Mullan in Zone 8.
Four other incumbents entered the race, and three managed to hang onto their positions. Those trustees include Spencer Warren in Zone 4, Eugene Milito in Zone 6 and Jeremy Wittet in Zone 7.
Meanwhile, Cameron Bonesso narrowly defeated incumbent Cindy Desclouds-Simpson in Zone 10, with Bonesso earning 56 per cent of the vote to Desclouds-Simpson’s 43 per cent. It was a rematch from 2022, when these same two candidates went head to head, which resulted in a Desclouds-Simpson victory, also by a small margin.
Here’s the full list of newly elected OCSB trustees:
- Zone 1: Scott Phelan (acclaimed)
- Zone 2: Sandra Moore (acclaimed)
- Zone 3: Brian Coburn (acclaimed)
- Zone 4: Spencer Warren was elected with 53.5 per cent of the vote
- Zone 5: Joanne MacEwan (acclaimed)
- Zone 6: Eugene Milito was elected with 48.9 per cent of the vote
- Zone 7: Jeremy Wittet was elected with 74 per cent of the vote
- Zone 8: Mark D Mullan (acclaimed)
- Zone 9: Danny Arrais was elected with 56.1 per cent of the vote
- Zone 10: Cameron Bonesso was elected with 56.5 per cent of the vote
Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario (CEPEO)
In the French public school board, Ottawa voters elected trustees in the seven zones that fall within the city boundaries.
Each zone was contested, with incumbents re-elected into the positions in five different zones.
One of the fresh faces on the trustee board is Mathieu Fleury , who previously served one term as Rideau-Vanier councillor in 2018, before deciding he would not seek re-election in 2022. Fleury earned a dominant 88 per cent of the vote in the trustee election for Zone 10.
With the French public school board also covering other areas of eastern Ontario such as Frontenac, Lanark and South Grenville, not all trustee zones were included in the City of Ottawa’s vote tallies. The below numbers only include the ballots cast within the City of Ottawa.
Here’s the full list of newly elected CEPEO trustees in Ottawa:
- Zone 6: Marc Roy with 43 per cent of the vote
- Zone 7: Musset Pierre-Jérôme with 69.7 per cent of the vote
- Zone 8: Denis Labrèche with 67.1 per cent of the vote
- Zone 9: Joël Beddows with 69.9 per cent of the vote
- Zone 10: Mathieu Fleury with 87.6 per cent of the vote
- Zone 11: Jacinthe Marcil with 68.3 per cent of the vote
- Zone 12: Samia Ouled Ali with 62.1 per cent of the vote
Conseil des écoles catholiques du Centre-Est (CECCE)
Three trustees were acclaimed and two incumbents were re-elected in the eight French Catholic school board zones that fall within Ottawa’s city boundaries.
With the French Catholic school board also covering other areas of eastern Ontario such as Frontenac, Lanark and South Grenville, not all trustee zones were included in the City of Ottawa’s vote tallies. The below numbers only include the ballots cast within the City of Ottawa.
Here’s the full list of newly elected CECCE trustees in Ottawa:
- Zone 4: Jolène Savoie-Day with 77.3 per cent of the vote
- Zone 5: Joy Nehme with 56.1 per cent of the vote
- Zone 6: Michel Charron with 63.8 per cent of the vote
- Zone 7: Robert Rainboth with 63.2 per cent of the vote
- Zone 8: Dan Boudria (acclaimed)
- Zone 9: Johanne Lacombe (acclaimed)
- Zone 10: Isabelle Gervais with 86.2 per cent of the vote
- Zone 11: André J. Thibodeau (acclaimed)
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