The provincially-appointed supervisor at Ottawa’s largest school board says giving media interviews is not in his mandate.
Speaking at a meeting for the parent involvement committee (PIC) at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board on Wednesday night, Bob Plamondon said he has a mandate to provide active oversight of the OCDSB, but the official spokesperson is the Education Minister Paul Calandra, and the Ministry of Education.
“You know, you may not hear from me in the media. That’s not my mandate,” Plamondon told the members of PIC.
Plamondon, an auditor and expert in governance, was
appointed as supervisor to the OCDSB on June 27
.
Since he was appointed, Plamondon has released only two public statements — one on July 24 that focused on
reintroducing student assessments
for Grades 9 and 10 and another on Oct. 7 that announced he had decided to
cancel plans to introduce the controversial elementary boundary changes
that trustees approved last spring.
A statement he delivered to the members of PIC is one of the longest he has made publicly.
Plamondon said he was committed to communicating with parents, students and educators.
“Since I was appointed, I don’t think there was a single request for a meeting that I haven’t taken,” Plamondon told the members of PIC.
“I’ve had hundreds of one-on-one meetings with teachers, with parents, with student trustees, certainly people who work for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board in groups,” he said.
Asked by a member of the committee if he would answer questions, Plamondon responded that questions would have to be addressed to his email address or to OCDSB.
Questions about the elementary program review are “the elephant in the room,” said one parent.
“So as much as I’d like to respond to questions, the process that we’ve been following up until now is that as questions come in to me on either my supervisor account or into the school board is, you know, we receive those questions,” said Plamondon.
“You know, we formulate answers to provide as much content as we can through my office or my position, as well as in collaboration with the ministry and the minister’s office to ensure that we’ve got some consistency across the across the five boards and that’s what we’ll continue to do to provide as much feedback to parents as possible,” he told the PIC.
Plamondon added that he has met with unions and has a weekly meeting with a group of principals who give him “frontline advice” on what’s going on in their school, professional development, how school councils are run, budgets and the impediments that they face.
“And every time there’s a good idea, well, any idea that comes forward that has merit, I bring that idea into the school board, where we have ongoing discussions about what we can do in the moment, whether it’s on procurement, as I mentioned, on professional development, on school safety.”
About 16 people attended the meeting, including the members of PIC, board staff and reporters from three media outlets, including Postmedia.
All of those present were asked to sign a form indicating they would not take photos, audio or video recordings, including live-streaming “without the express permission of all present.”
Media members took audio recordings and were not prevented from doing so.
The question of whether or not parents can live-stream the proceedings of a school board committee has
raised questions about public access
to the decision-making process. The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) Alliance, a disability advocacy group, has called it a “troubling and undemocratic move.”
In response to a City TV reporter’s question on Oct. 10, Calandra said the intention was never about stopping people who could not attend a meeting from being able to participate.
“Really, it was about bringing the temperature down,” he said.
Asked if Wednesday’s PIC meeting was public and whether statements made at the meeting could be cited, OCDSB lawyer Jesse Mark replied in the affirmative.
Speaking to the members of PIC, Plamondon said he has established four priorities for the board, with student success and well-being being the first on the list, followed by the engagement of all staff.
“When they feel respected, when they feel trusted, when they feel supported, when they feel safe,” said Plamondon. “They will do the best possible job in supporting students.”
The third priority is to make sure that provincial funds are spent wisely, he said.
“That might mean spending more in some areas, you know, particularly in supporting the students, and less in other areas and where there are certain areas for improvement, in the funding formulas, or how our money is received and how it’s allocated,” said Plamondon.
“I will advocate on behalf of the students, on behalf of the parents and behalf the board as a whole, to ensure that the funding formula, better response to the needs that we have in our district that may even be unique to our district.”
The fourth objective is to ensure that this board is financially sustainable going forward, said Plamondon.
“We have been incurring deficits in the past number of years, which weakens our financial condition and our resilience to deal with issues that come up on occasion, that we have to deal with those thoughtfully, carefully, and we’re in a better position when we’re not in a deficit situation.”
Plamondon added that he has also met with the community engagement team at the Ottawa Police Services and Chief Eric Stubbs on several occasions “to talk about how they can support safety in the schools and how they can help educate our students about the proper role of police in society.”
In May, four years after a controversial police-in-schools program was cancelled in Ottawa, the province announced that it is introducing legislation that will
require school boards to implement the program
if it is available.
Plamondon said every idea he has received has been considered, and every email message has been recorded and received a response.
“We won’t get everything right, but we won’t be frozen in paralysis for a willingness to look at any and all good ideas,” he said.
With the school board under supervision, there have been no meetings of the board of elected trustees, and trustees have not been able to participate as members of board committees.
Trustee Donna Blackburn attended the PIC meeting as a member of the public.
“He basically stated the obvious,” said Blackburn after the meeting. “His goals are student success and student well-being and staff engagement. I would have preferred to use the staff ‘well-being’ because without staff well-being, we can’t have student success and student well-being.”
Plamondon has attended meetings of the audit committee and PIC, but has not attended the special education advisory board. Parents of students with special needs are very concerned that some of the decisions the board of trustees made to
keep specialized program classes
will be rescinded, said Blackburn.
Parents have also expressed concerns about
students with special needs being integrated into “regular” classrooms
.
“He (Plamondon) has already indicated he’s undoing some of the elementary program review,” said Blackburn. “So does that mean he’s undoing that vote, too? If that’s the case, it’s going to be disastrous not only for those kids, but for other kids in the classroom.”
