About

OPERI has no political or business affiliations. It is an Ottawa grassroots organization. Its founding members are all residents of Ottawa with deep concerns about public education.

The resources of OPERI are being focused on just one school board, the Ottawa Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). The idea is that a single public board can provide an example that turns the tide.

The pilot programs promoted by OPERI are based on one called CHIP that ran in Ottawa’s Lester B. Pearson High School. It led to the non-radical vision of how a major educational transformation can be incrementally orchestrated with minimal disturbance.

The motivation behind OPERI is defined by the words of Arundhati Roy in Power Politics:

“The trouble is that once you see it, you can’t unsee it.
And once you’ve seen it, keeping quiet,
saying nothing becomes as political an act as speaking out.”