Ottawa’s largest school board is cutting dozens of teaching and non-academic staff positions as it deals with declining enrolment and a multi-million-dollar budget deficit.
Ottawa Carleton District School Board trustees voted 7 to 5 in favour of a plan to cut 150 full-time equivalent academic and non-academic staffing positions as part of the 2025-26 school-year budget. The board will also decrease 46.78 full-time equivalent teaching positions due to declining enrolment.
“We’d like nothing more than to come forward at a budgetary meeting to share that we have all the funds we need to meet all of the demands that we have as a system,” Pino Buffone, Director of Education, told trustees Tuesday night.
“Our resources, human material or fiscal, are finite in nature and we’re dearly having to make challenging decisions for the organization in the best interest of our students, our staff and our school communities.”
The board anticipates saving $15.9 million through the reduction of 70 academic and 80 non-academic positions.
“Staffing reductions across the District will have an impact on schools and students,” staff say in the report. “Both the non-academic arm of the organization and the academic side of the District have experienced reductions. Most areas of the organization will see a reduction in staffing and/or their operational budgets in order to balance our budget for 2025-26.”
The OCDSB is projecting a $20 million budget shortfall for the 2025-26 school year. The OCDSB has posted a deficit budget four straight years.
“This is not a one-time shortfall and thus, permanent staffing reductions must be made in order to be compliant with Provincial legislation and balance the budget,” staff say.
Staff say while enrolment for the 2025-26 school year is anticipated to be “relatively stable” compared to the 2024-25 actual enrolment, it will be lower than the initial projections for 2024-25 school year “due to lower-than-normal Kindergarten birth rates and fewer international students in our schools.”
Buffone told trustees that elected officials and the board must advocate for funding to support education.
“There are areas, special education for example, where we are underfunded. Staff’s job is to bring you a budget that you can approve.”
Trustee Cathryne Milburn told the board, “This is the provincial government’s fault; they need to own up to their own mistakes and they need to start fixing this.”
Staffing accounts for approximately 81 per cent of the OCDSB’s $1.2 billion budget, with the proposed budget for academic staffing in 2025-26 to be $659 million, while non-academic staffing will cost $315 million.
“The District does not have the accumulated financial reserves to run a deficit budget,” staff say, noting the Ontario government has not tabled a budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year and the board has “no indication of any substantive funding for increased cost pressures or new initiatives.”
The proposed academic staffing plan for 2025-26 includes a reduction of 46.78 full-time equivalent positions in the required academic staffing allocation due to a “modest decrease in projected enrolment.” Staff say the reduction of 46.79 FTE academic positions will not result in any cost savings.
The report does not provide a breakdown on the positions that will be cut from the “required academic positions,” but those positions include classroom teachers, student success teachers, guidance teachers, learning support teachers and supports for student fund teachers for elementary and secondary schools.
The 46.78 FTE reduction includes 18 FTE elearning teachers as a result of an increase in the student to teacher ratio next school year.
Staff are recommending a decrease of approximately 52.16 FTE discretionary academic staff for the 2025-26 school year, with the majority of the positions not school-based.
“These reductions will impact the support that central departments are able to provide to schools,” staff say.
The report recommends a reduction of nearly 80 non-academic staff, “spread out across most central departments.”
“This number of staff reductions will have an impact on the service levels that central departments can provide to schools,” staff say.
The report estimates the board will save $7 million through the reduction of 80 non-academic staff and $8.8 million through the reduction in discretionary academic staff, including elearning.
“Staff reductions will be completed through attrition (i.e. retirement/resignation), not filling vacant positions and the elimination of positions,” the board says, noting job security restrictions in the Ontario Secondary School Teacher Federation Education Worker collective agreements may delay when positions can be eliminated or reduced.
Non-academic staffing positions include employees in executive administration, businesses and corporate services and employee and school support services, along with school support positions – educational assistants, early childhood educators, office staff, social workers and psychologists.
The staffing report, prepared by Buffone and Superintendent of Employee Services Shawn Lehman says there will be new teachers hired to support new school openings and support for students with special education needs through specialized placement classes.
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has approximately 1,828 FTE employees in non-academic staffing areas. The academic staffing plan approved in June 2024 for the 2024-25 school year had 5,049 elementary and secondary school academic staffing positions, with the number projected to be 4,953 FTE positions at the end of March due to lower enrolment figures.
Ottawa’s largest school board is projecting enrolment of 50,762 elementary students and 26,196 secondary students next school year.
The potential job cuts at the OCDSB come as the school board continues its elementary program review, which proposes changes to elementary school programs, school configurations and boundaries for the 2026-27 school year.
As part of the program review, the public-school board is looking to consolidate its elementary programs from six to two - Enhanced English and French Immersion, gradually eliminate Middle French Immersion, close Alternative schools and phase out some special education programs. The plan includes changing the grade structure at 30 schools and changing the boundaries for 123 schools.
Ottawa’s largest school board launched the review of its elementary programs last spring, the first stage of a review to ensure “inclusive, high-quality and accessible programs and/or services” offered by the board.
A final decision on the OCDSB’s elementary program review is expected to be made in April.
