AODA Alliance
Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act Alliance Update
United for a Barrier-Free Ontario for All People with Disabilities
Website: www.aodaalliance.org
Email: aodafeedback@gmail.com
Twitter: @aodaalliance
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aodaalliance
Ford Government Causes More Chaos in the Top Ranks at Two School Boards Over Which it Seized control, Further Destabilizing Education for All Students, Including Thousands of Students with Disabilities
December 13, 2025
SUMMARY
On December 12, 2025, the Ford Government summarily fired the Toronto District School Board’s Director of Education Clayton La Touche. One month earlier, on November 11, 2025, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board’s Director of Education was similarly terminated.
The Director of Education is the senior full-time executive who runs a school board. They usually are hired by and report to a board of elected school trustees. At six Ontario school boards over the past months, including TDSB and OCDSB, the Ford Government has seized control of the boards, appointed separate provincial supervisors over each of their Directors of Education, and ousted their elected trustees.
In both the Ottawa and Toronto cases, concerns from the perspective of thousands of students with disabilities were expressed in the media arising from these summary terminations. Below we set out a report in the December 12, 2025 Toronto star and a report in the November 11, 2025 Ottawa Citizen. In light of such events, it is going to be harder to recruit qualified candidates for this difficult job. Who would want to subject themselves to the chaos.
Ontario schools continue to be replete with disability barriers that make it harder for one-third of a million students with disabilities to fully participate in and benefit from the education that school boards are required to provide equally for all students. The Ford Government’s track record on fixing this is grossly deficient.
Nine years ago, while in opposition, the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party properly blasted the governing Liberals about this situation in Ontario schools, and demanded that Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne agree to create an Education Accessibility Standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act to tear down disability barriers. Here is what the Tories’ disability issues critic said in the Legislature’s Question Period on December 5, 2016:
“Mr. Bill Walker: My question is to the Premier. It has been 11 years since this Legislature passed the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Yet, today, over a third of a million students with disabilities continue to face far too many barriers when they try to go to school, college or university in Ontario.
Today’s Toronto Star reports that 22 respected community organizations wrote the Premier, urging her to finally say “yes” to creating an educational accessibility standard and tear down those unfair barriers.
Premier, on October 31, you told this House that you were considering this. Will you agree to do it today?”
It was very good that Premier Wynne responded by committing to the creation of an Education Accessibility Standard. This was a major breakthrough for which we had fought hard for seven years.
Importantly, the Conservative disability issues critic Bill Walker immediately pressed this issue again in his supplementary question to the Premier, stating:
“This government’s continued inaction on this file is inexcusable. This government has no comprehensive plan to ensure that our education system will become fully accessible by 2025, as the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act requires. The AODA Alliance has pressed you for over half a decade to agree to develop the standard under the AODA to tackle these barriers.
Can you tell a third of a million students with disabilities and their families what the holdup is, after the five years of this issue being before your government?
In her response, Premier Wynne repeated her commitment to enact an Education Accessibility Standard. The back story behind this exchange in Question Period is discussed by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky and former Premier Kathleen Wynne in the most recent episode of our new podcast, Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast, available wherever podcasts are found. You can also read the entire exchange between Premier Wynne and Conservative MPP Bill Walker in the December 5, 2016 AODA Alliance Update.
It was very commendable that the Conservatives, while in opposition, recognized that students with disabilities face so many disability barriers in school and that they demanded prompt action, specifically supporting the need for the enactment of the Education Accessibility Standard.
Similarly, when he was seeking votes in the 2018 election, Doug Ford specifically recognized the need for more action in his May 15, 2018 letter to the AODA Alliance, which included:
- “Your issues are close to the hearts of our Ontario PC Caucus and Candidates, which is why they will play an outstanding role in shaping policy for the Ontario PC Party to assist Ontarians in need.”
- “Too many Ontarians with disabilities still face barriers when they try to get a job, ride public transit, get an education, use our healthcare system, buy goods or services, or eat in restaurants.
Whether addressing standards for public housing, health care, employment or education, our goal when passing the AODA in 2005 was to help remove the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from participating more fully in their communities.
For the Ontario PCs, this remains our goal. Making Ontario fully accessible by 2025 is an important goal under the AODA and it’s one that would be taken seriously by an Ontario PC government.”
- “The Ontario PC Party believes our education system must minimize barriers for students with disabilities, providing the skills, opportunities and connections with the business community that are necessary to enter the workforce.”
What has the Ford Government done about this in its seven and a half years in office? Almost four years ago, on January 28, 2022, the Ford Government received the final report of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee. It provides a thorough report on the disability barriers in Ontario’s K-12 schools, recommendations on what needs to be done to remove and prevent them, and a blueprint for the promised Education Accessibility Standard. Almost four years later, the Ford Government has not enacted any of its recommendations. When asked, it has previously said it is still studying the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee report. It mechanically makes boasts about how much money it allocates to special education whenever these issues are raised, without facing the reality of what too many students with disabilities are experiencing in the classroom.
The Government’s seizing control over six school boards has thrown them into chaos and uncertainty. Terminating Directors of Education risks making this worse. The taxpayer will be on the hook for paying out settlements with the senior executives they fire. When elected trustees hired Directors of Education, there was an expectation of an open competitive hiring process. Under the direct control of the Minister of Education, if Ottawa is to be the illustration, this will not be the same. Parents of students with disabilities have every reason to fear that the Ford Government will not make it a priority to hire new Directors of Education with the much-needed expertise in positively reforming our education system on the front lines for students with disabilities.
How You Can Help
- Join in on the all-important Better Call Paul Campaign. Phone or email Education Minister Paul Calandra and ask him to intervene to fix the problems facing your child with disabilities in an Ontario school. Tell him that our school boards do not need to be thrust into any more chaos and that any new Directors of Education must have proven expertise on improving educational opportunities for students with disabilities.
Phone: 416 325-2600
Email: minister.edu@ontario.ca
- Download and distribute our 1-page Better Call Paul brochure available at this link.
- Encourage people you know to learn how to be an effective disability advocate by listening to our new podcast called Disability Rights and Wrongs — The David Lepodcast. Get this podcast wherever you get your podcasts or download it directly from various podcast platforms such as:
Apple music: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/disability-rights-and-wrongs-the-david-lepodcast/id1838700161
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5WFLiSy99OJPMZ1ZSrkWCg
Ask your smart phone, Alexa, or Google Nest: “Play podcast Disability Rights and Wrongs!”
- Learn about the contents of the final report of the K-12 Education Standards Development Committee by watching a talk by AODA Alliance Chair David Lepofsky that summarizes it, available online.
Visit the AODA Alliance website’s education page to learn about our battle for over 15 years to tear down the recurring disability barriers in our education system.
MORE DETAILS
Toronto Star December 13, 2025
Province fires TDSB director
Supervisor says aim is to set board up for ‘success in the years to come,’ as advocates decry move
Kristin Rushowy Senior Writer Isabel Teotonio Toronto Star
The education director of the Toronto District School Board has been ousted in a surprise move the province said is needed for a “fresh start” – but one that left staff rattled and a teachers union accusing the government of “political games.”
In a memo sent Friday morning to employees, provincial supervisor Rohit Gupta said he and Education Minister Paul Calandra made the “difficult decision” and that Clayton La Touche “will be leaving the TDSB, effective immediately.”
Gupta said he wants to set up the board – which the province took over last June, citing financial issues – “for success in the years ahead.”
The move has raised concerns about the level of the ministry’s involvement in school boards, given that it has stripped elected trustees of power in an unprecedented six boards and sent in its own appointees to take charge, while also announcing that governance changes are on the way.
La Touche is the third director to leave a public board while under provincial supervision and, like his Ottawa counterpart, been replaced with someone with a business background.
“The removal of yet another director of education risks creating greater instability at a time when students, families and staff most need steadiness and trust in their school system,” said Kathleen Woodcock, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.
“This level of provincial involvement in local governance is unprecedented. Strong local leadership is essential for communities, and these actions risk undermining public confidence rather than strengthening it.”
La Touche, a respected veteran educator who started his career as a TDSB elementary teacher 30 years ago, is a former Ontario assistant deputy education minister and associate director at the York Region public board.
Sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the ouster, told the Star that La Touche and Gupta had a strained relationship from the outset; since taking over the board, Gupta has reversed a number of board decisions made during La Touche’s tenure.
For David Lepofsky, head of the board’s special education advisory committee, La Touche showed “strong support for the need for improvements for the 40,000 students with disabilities and special education needs” and was shocked he’d been let go after just 10 months.
La Touche, he added, “had worked for the Ministry of Education for many years … it’s not like he was an unknown quantity.”
Local union presidents also weighed in, with Michelle Teixeira of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation saying with the “sudden change in leadership … We worry that this move is more political games being played at the expense of students.”
John Weatherup, president of the Toronto Education Workers CUPE Local 4400, said “it doesn’t make sense to me – it upsets the system for sure.”
With La Touche gone, associate director Stacey Zucker, a chartered accountant with 15 years working in the education system, will serve as interim director.
“Under the continued leadership of the supervisor, the Toronto District School Board is refocusing on student achievement,” Calandra said in a statement to the Star. “I have full confidence that the supervisor, working with the interim director, will drive that focus and ensure every decision puts students first.”
The ouster comes as Calandra looks to overhaul how the education system is governed and possible widespread curriculum reform. He has also ordered a review of the EQAO testing system after recent results in reading, writing and math showed little progress.
TDSB Trustee Weidong Pei “fully” supports the decision to remove La Touche, arguing the former director placed too much emphasis on diversity, equity and inclusion policies at the expense of academic achievement, pointing to recent stalled standardized test results.
La Touche, he added, supported a number of contentious decisions, including the controversial lottery-based admissions process for specialized programs and the renaming of three schools commemorating historical figures, saying those were “policies that distracted the board and did nothing to support our classrooms.”
Gupta has since reinstated merit-based admissions, halted school renamings, blocked the transfer of a longtime and beloved high school principal, and reversed the removal of the itinerant music instructor program.
Trustee Debbie King, who served on the search committee that recruited La Touche, called this “yet another, in a series of troubling decisions that drastically increases spending outside of classrooms while disregarding the decisions of trustees and interests of school communities,” she said.
The board is now on the hook for the supervisor’s $350,000 salary, up to $40,000 in expenses, as well as his assistant’s salary. It will also need to pay out the remainder of La Touche’s contract, which King said is typically five years, with a severance clause.
Advocacy group Save Our Schools – comprising parents, students and educators – said it is “relieved” La Touche is no longer at the helm, saying he “consistently demonstrated a flagrant disregard for community input and has done nothing to meaningfully address falling student achievement or the school violence crisis.”
But at Queen’s Park, opposition critics said the province’s moves are not going to help the system or student achievement, and only add to boards’ bottom lines.
“We now have people with no discernible background in education firing leaders with years of experience, because the minister thinks he can run Ontario’s education system from his office at Queen’s Park,” said Liberal MPP John Fraser.
“Firing a chief executive without cause is costly. Taxpayers cover the severance, with no improvement in classrooms, no reduction in class sizes, and no added support for students.”
NDP education critic Chandra Pasma slammed the secrecy around a move made “behind closed doors. Parents have not been consulted and had no opportunity to participate in this important decision.”
Other education insiders worried that the Toronto board, and others, will have trouble finding new directors given that the pool is already small, amid new worries about how big a role the province will play.
In the Near North District School Board, the director there has resigned following a scathing ministry report that detailed dysfunctional leadership by him and elected trustees. Calandra said he will appoint an interim director there, as well as a provincial supervisor – and in the meantime has put himself in charge of the North Bay-based board.
^Ottawa Citizen November 11, 2025
Originally posted at https://ottawacitizen.com/news/ocdsb-pino-buffone-departs
OCDSB director of education Pino Buffone departs
Buffone spearheaded the controversial elementary program review. He leaves after a provincial supervisor was appointed to oversee the OCDSB.
By Joanne Laucius
The director of education at Ottawa’s largest school board, which has been under provincial supervision since June, has departed his position.
In an email to staff, supervisor Bob Plamondon said Buffone was departing “effective immediately.”
“Please join me in extending best wishes to Pino for continued success in his future endeavours.”
Starting his career as a teacher and later becoming a vice-principal, principal and superintendent at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, Buffone took the helm as director of education at the Renfrew County District School Board in 2017, then became director of education at the OCDSB in August 2023.
Buffone spearheaded the controversial elementary program review, arguing that there had been concerns about inequities in OCDSB schools for decades as French immersion programs drew students away from community schools, leaving some English-only schools with barely sustainable populations.
“The number of programs and where they are located has resulted in a patchwork of school configurations and grade structures as well as program offerings,” Buffone told trustees in April 2024.
At the time, elementary schools at the OCDSB had 900-plus students or fewer than 200, causing inequities between schools and students. One of the problems is that some schools, primarily those that don’t offer French immersion, have low enrolments.
The goal of the review was to return as many students as possible to their neighbourhood schools and to offer both the French immersion and the English programs in as many schools as possible, balancing out school populations and ensuring that all elementary schools remained viable. It would also result in less busing and fewer portable classrooms.
But the process also drew protests from parents over proposed school boundary changes. Parents, particularly inside the urban boundary, argued the changes would separate siblings and force some students to travel farther in some cases. In some neighbourhoods, schools are less than a kilometre apart, but some are under capacity, meaning the boundaries had to be shifted under the proposal.
Stacey Kay
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board on Tuesday announced that Stacey Kay had been appointed as the board’s director of education. Kay replaced outgoing director Pino Buffone.
Last month, Plamondon said no child would have to change schools next September — but some elementary school boundaries could change eventually. The elementary program review, as proposed, would have been “chaotic,” he said in a written Q&A for parents clarifying his reasons for cancelling the changes.
In his message to staff, Plamondon said Stacey Kay, previously general manager of Learning Support Services at the OCDSB, where she oversaw special education and advancing inclusive, student-centred programs across the district, had become director of education effective immediately.
“Stacey began her career with the OCDSB in 2001 as a Speech-Language Pathologist, working in classrooms across the district,” Plamondon said in his message to staff.
“Over more than two decades, she took on progressively senior leadership roles and earned recognition for her student-focused leadership, collaboration with teachers, and commitment to excellence,” Plamondon said.
“Her extensive experience will be instrumental as she leads a student-first review of OCDSB operations to ensure resources support student success and well-being, while simultaneously strengthening staff engagement.”
Kay was named general manager and CAO of Ottawa Student Transportation Authority (OSTA) in December 2024, “where she delivered on a major transformation initiative to enhance service reliability and performance,” according to Plamondon.
In September 2023, the parents of about 7,500 students at the OCDSB and the Ottawa Catholic School Board scrambled to find alternative transportation to school only days before Labour Day after more than 300 bus runs were cancelled because bus companies struggled to hire drivers.
“With her proven record of delivering transformational results and deep understanding of the challenges facing the District, Stacey Kay is exceptionally well positioned to lead the OCDSB to become the best school board in the province of Ontario,” Plamondon said in his message.
“I am thrilled to return to the OCDSB during this exciting time of transformation. I look forward to connecting with students, staff, and families, and to leading the District with a steadfast commitment to student success,” Kay said in a statement released by the board. “Every student in the OCDSB deserves to be given the opportunity to thrive and fulfill their potential.”
Key areas of responsibility for the director of education include student welfare, educational leadership, fiscal responsibility, organizational management, strategic planning, personnel management, policy and procedures and community relations.
“Over the years, she has taken on progressively senior leadership roles, earning recognition for her student-focused leadership, collaboration with teachers, and commitment to excellence,” a board statement said of Kay. “Her extensive experience will be instrumental as she leads a student-first review of OCDSB operations to ensure resources support student success and well-being, while simultaneously strengthening staff engagement.”
Under provincial supervision, elected trustees are no longer able to make decisions.
Donna Blackburn, who was first elected in 2010, said Buffone’s departure should be very concerning to the people of Ottawa.
“Pino Buffone started his career at the school board as a student who didn’t speak English and rose to the head of the OCDSB,” she said.
“This man personifies the power of public education. For him to now be leaving is a tremendous loss to the OCDSB. This is the second strategically critical person to leave the OCDSB,” said Blackburn, a reference to the resignation of chief financial officer Randy Gerrior.
“Pino Buffone showed leadership in bringing forward the elementary program review, which was a necessary decision,” Blackburn said. “When you’re a leader, you can’t do what is popular.”
The Ministry of Education knew from the very beginning what OCDSB staff had proposed in the elementary program review, she said.
“The system has now been thrown into chaos. I do not feel or think that people in the system will react positively to this. I think there will be demoralization that will be very hard to overcome.”
NDP education critic Chandra Pasma said Buffone’s departure raised a lot of questions for parents.
“‘Departure’ is pretty opaque language,” said Pasma, the MPP for Ottawa West-Nepean. “We don’t know if he departed voluntarily or if he was removed. We don’t know the financial implications. We don’t know if he was paid severance.”
According to the 2024 Ontario Sunshine List, Buffone’s salary was $277,060, with $12,000 in benefits.
Pasma pointed out that directors of education were hired by elected trustees. In this case, the new director was hired by the supervisor.
“This was a decision made by one person, and one person only,” she said.
The province gave “financial mismanagement” as the reason for putting the OCDSB under supervision. If Buffone is being paid a severance because he was terminated, that’s money that will come out of the classroom, Pasma said.
“Parents will want to know — and what is being done to cover the cost.”
It’s “genuinely alarming” that Kay has been appointed the new director of education after assurances from Plamondon that special education would be the last area for cuts, said Kate Dudley-Logue, vice-president of community outreach at the Ontario Autism Coalition.
In the spring of 2024, the board was considering what the elementary program review might mean for integrating students with special needs into mainstream classes.
In discussing the general learning program (GLP), a specialized program for students with mild intellectual disabilities, Kay, then the OCDSB’s general manager of learning support services, said the program fostered a sense of belonging and community and allows students to develop life skills — but the structure created an environment that “inherently lowers expectations for learning.”
Some parents have disagreed, arguing that segregated programs have helped their child thrive. Parents have fought to keep segregated programs.
“Parents spent the last two years fighting to save these essential programs, and now it appears they have to fight again,” Dudley-Logue said.