Ottawa’s public school board looking at selling vacant buildings, cutting programs to save money

Ottawa’s public school board is exploring several options to find up to $20 million in savings, including selling vacant buildings and cutting some adult high school and special education programs.

Trustees with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB) have been told that “tough decisions” will have to be made in order for Ottawa’s largest school board to avoid a deficit budget for a fifth straight year.  The Ministry of Education has ordered an investigation into the OCDSB’s finances, with a report expected by the end of the month.

Staff will present the draft budget in June for the 2025-26 school year, which will include recommendations to save money.

Associate Director of Education Randall Gerrior issued a warning to trustees that there are few options available to find savings, and trustees won’t have $30 million in possible options to find $20 million in savings to balance the budget.

“There’s no ability when you’re under the current financial pressures that you’re under to have a buffet of options,” Gerrior said Wednesday evening.

“We are struggling to find things that we would recommend to the board to reduce that has the least amount of impact on classrooms, marginalized groups and still operate this organization in a credible, functional way.”

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Gerrior told trustees that staff have done a review of discretionary spending, including money spent on guest speakers, conferences and all vacancies are reviewed.

Gerrior says staff are also looking at whether programs could be suspended, cancelled or remodelled at the Adult High School, special education programs and other programs that are not mandated. The board is also looking at long-term plans like divestment of properties, including McGregor Easson Public School, and better business practices to align with decision-making and operations to boost the board’s surplus.

Gerrior said the budget recommendations will include reductions in senior staff, but it won’t be enough to balance the budget.

“We will be within ministry benchmarks on senior staff. A senior staff member is not going to address the structural problems that we have within our organization,” Gerrior said Wednesday night. “You can’t solve a $20 million problem with a $200,000 reduction.”

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Gerrior told an OCDSB board meeting Tuesday night that cuts to administration are impacting services.

“I hear a lot out of the trustees, ‘we’ll cut more out of admin, we’ll cut more out of other places.’ We’ve been doing that,” Gerrior said. “We almost didn’t make payroll at one point because of cuts that we’ve made to admin staff over the years.”

On Wednesday, the OCDSB released a report showing more than $75 million in budget pressures that are not covered by funding from the Ministry of Education.

The 17,000 vacant student spaces in OCDSB schools is costing the board $20 million a year, while the board is facing an estimated budget pressure of $16.8 million to cover costs for replacing sick and absent staff. Inflation is expected to add a $12 million pressure to the 2025-26 budget, with Gerrior saying the funding “must be found from other areas.”

Staff at the OCDSB are reviewing recent Ontario government funding announcements

The Ministry of Education announced last week the OCDSB will receive $1.079 billion in funding for the new school year, up from $1.047 billion for the 2024-25 school year. The $31 million in extra funding includes an additional $18.9 million for classroom staffing, $3.1 million for special education funding and $2.8 million for student transportation.

The OCDSB is looking at reducing spending by $9.3 million in central and administration supports, $4.85 million in academic staffing and $4.8 million in special education.

School boards are required to pass a balanced budget by June 30.