Parents call on Queen's Park to fire school bus leadership

Some Ottawa parents are calling for the Ministry of Education to fire and replace the executive leadership of the agency that organizes student transportation in the city's English-language school boards.

The call comes five weeks after parents and students were left scrambling due to hundreds more cancelled bus runs affectingthousands of students.

Jennifer Bugden, a parent and president of the Munster Community Association,was one of the petition organizers.

"We, the undersigned, petition That the Minister of Education mandate the immediate resignation of the general manager of the Ottawa Student Transportation Authority as well as all OSTA executives, and the Ministry of Education oversee the hiring of new, competent leadership," the petition reads in part.

She wanted the petition to go ahead even though the general manager and chief administrative officer ofOSTAis on a recently announced leave of absence.

"Rural Ottawa has been affected greatly by the lack of organization, the lack of priority to students who have no other means of getting to school," Bugden said.

"The Ministry of Education does need to step in and oversee what is happening with OSTA," she said.

Bugden saidparents are concerned aboutpoor communication and alack of efficiency fromschool buses that are running.

Late Wednesday afternoon, OSTA announced its board of directorshad appointed aninterim operations manager a different jobtitle than the position temporarilyvacated by long-time general manager Vicky Kyriaco.

Cindy Owens was named to the interimrole.

Presented in Queen's Park

The petition was presented by Carleton Progressive Conservative MPP Goldie Ghamari.

"We're talking parents who might not have that flexibility or leniency in their job to spend up to three hours a day dropping off and picking up their students," she said."It's really heartbreaking."

Ghamari said Kyriaco's leave of absence has left parents with more questions than answers.

Ghamari said the Ministry of Education is responding to OSTA's concern about $6-million funding shortfall after a change to the provincial transportation funding formula by coming to an agreement withEnglish-language boards and providing $1.8 million for this school year.

Ghamari said the agency should have communicated the issue more clearly and in advance to parents as well as preparing a Plan B.

"You would think that the people who are responsible for procuring contracts and figuring out the routes would have some sort of Plan B in place,"Ghamari said.

"Ultimately, it's not the [Ministry of Education] that determines the routes.It's not the ministry that procures the contracts. That responsibility is up to OSTA and the leadership at OSTA."

Ghamari said she's been reassured by the English-language boards that communication will improve. She said the Ministry of Education has also commissioned a third-party review of OSTA operations by Deloitte.

A spokesperson for Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce said the ministry has been responding to this "Ottawa-specific problem."

"Across the entire province, Ottawa's English school boards represent more than 70% of the disruptions," Isha Chaudhuri said in a statement.

"We will continue to hold the school boards and transportation consortia to account to ensure Ottawa families receive the dependable and reliablestudent transportation services they deserve."

Ministry 'pointing fingers,' NDP critic says

NDPeducation critic Chandra Pasma said that third-party review will address whatever issues there might be specifically at OSTA, butthe new transportation funding formula is the core issue.

"The province has been missing from the table coming up with solutions here. They have been doing nothing but pointing fingers," said Pasma, who represents Ottawa WestNepean.

"The province needs to be at the table discussing the real costs of transportation in Ontario, making sure that the funds are there and the solutions are there to make sure that every child gets the transportation they need."

Pasma said the funding formula should account for the increased costof bus operations, including what's needed to hire and retain drivers.

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