PASMA: Kids need supports, not advisors with six-figure salaries

QUEEN’S PARK — Following news that OCDSB supervisor Bob Plamondon is cutting 182 teachers, education workers, and principals, while his Director of Education posts a six-figure job posting for a new advisor, NDP Shadow Minister for Education and MPP for Ottawa West—Nepean Chandra Pasma made the following statement:

“It is absolutely outrageous that while our kids are in crowded classrooms and special education classes are being closed, the Minister of Education’s handpicked supervisor is taking even more teachers and education workers out of our schools. Our kids need more support, not less.

“To add insult to injury, the same week these cuts are announced, the Director of Education selected by the supervisor is looking to hire a $176,000 a year advisor to help her do her job — a position that has never existed before. This is on top of the nearly $400,000 that Bob Plamondon is billing the OCDSB. That money should be going to frontline supports, not more bureaucracy.

“This is what happens when you put an unqualified Conservative appointee in charge of our children’s education. Cuts for our kids, lucrative contracts for Conservatives.”