Statement on Ontario’s Classroom Supplies Fund and ETFO’s Letter to Minister Calandra

Yesterday the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario wrote to Minister of Education Paul Calandra raising serious concerns about the government’s decision to make Staples the exclusive vendor for the Classroom Supplies Fund. I read the letter carefully. Several of its findings connect directly to the issues I am running on as a candidate for KPR School Board Trustee.

Who gets excluded

The Classroom Supplies Fund is limited to homeroom teachers only. That means arts teachers, physical education specialists, special education teachers, French teachers, itinerant educators and early intervention staff don’t have access to this fund.

These are not peripheral roles. These are the educators who support students with the most complex needs and deliver programming that keeps students engaged and connected to school.

I am running for KPR School Board Trustee because arts education has no distinct line item in KPR’s $552 million operating budget making it effectively invisible and unprotected when budgets tighten. A provincial program that excludes arts specialists entirely reinforces exactly the problem I am trying to address at the board level.

I am also running because the Ontario Auditor General’s 2026 special education report found that only 21% of classroom teachers feel equipped to meet the needs of special education students in their class. Excluding special education teachers from a classroom supplies program does not address that gap. It deepens it.

The financial transparency problem

ETFO notes that 40% of the $750 per homeroom teacher simply replaces funding that school boards like KPR were already allocating to classroom supplies. This is not new investment in classrooms, it is existing money being redirected away from efficient board-level bulk purchasing and toward individual retail orders through a single American-owned vendor.

This is precisely why financial transparency matters at the board table. Not every dollar announced as new investment in education represents genuinely new resources for students. A trustee who reads the fine print and who asks where the money is coming from and where it is actually going is the only thing standing between a government press release and the reality in classrooms.

The Buy Ontario problem

ETFO also raises the fact that the sole-source vendor selected is an American-owned corporation controlled by a private equity firm, going against the government’s own Buy Ontario directive. Canadian vendors and board-based procurement models were bypassed entirely. At a time when Canadians are navigating the effects of American trade policy this decision is particularly difficult to justify.

What I would push for at the board table

As your trustee I would formally request that KPR administration report on how this fund is affecting classroom supply access across KPR schools, specifically which educators are excluded, what the net impact is on arts programming and special education support, and whether board-level procurement models could deliver better outcomes for students and teachers.

I would also use every available avenue; SEAC, public board meetings, direct advocacy to the Ministry; to push for equitable access to classroom supply support for all educators including arts specialists and special education teachers.

My position

I agree with ETFO. This arrangement should be reconsidered. Equitable access for all educators should be the standard. The money announced as new investment in classrooms should actually be new investment in classrooms. And procurement decisions affecting Ontario’s publicly funded schools should prioritize Canadian vendors and board-based models over sole-source arrangements with American corporations.

Peterborough’s students and teachers deserve better than this.