Thames Valley students will feel effects as more teaching jobs cut: Union

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The London-area’s largest school board is eliminating the equivalent of 33 high school teaching jobs as it continues to wrestle its deficit, which has shot back up to $16.5 million even after previous deep cuts.

The move is a way for the cash-strapped Thames Valley District school board not to add to its spending shortfall, which has more than doubled since June when officials eliminated about 100 positions, said interim director Bill Tucker.

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“It means principals will have to cut classes here and there,” Tucker said.

Besides teachers having to teach different subjects in the January semester, the cuts mean a reduction in the number of long-term occasional teachers, he said. “It’s the equivalent of 33 teachers – but it doesn’t mean the loss of 33 teachers. It will be reflected in the reduction of occasional teachers.”

Tucker said if the board doesn’t take action it would add $2 to $3 million more to its deficit.

Trustees were recently told by administrators that projected enrolment in both elementary and high schools across the board was too high by about 600 students, leading to a $6.4-million cut in provincial funding. Enrolment is going up, just not by as much as expected, Sandra Macey, the board’s manager of financial services, said last week.

Total enrolment wasn’t made public, but the 2024-25 projection as of June was 84,112 kids across the board’s 158 schools.

The London-based board had previously slashed its 2024-25 budget shortfall to $7.6 million from $18 million with cuts that included 58 elementary and 24 high school teaching jobs, 17 early childhood educator jobs and four positions in speech and psychological services.

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But the overly optimistic student projections have helped drive the deficit back up again, to $16.5 million.

John Bernans, a local leader with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said the new job cuts will hit displaced occasional teachers the hardest – but he believes all staff and students will feel it. 

“We expect that the biggest effect for students will be increased class sizes, cancellation of under-enrolled classes and more split classes,” he said.

The cuts can be traced back to the Ford government and its “chronic underfunding” of education, Bernans said.

In the past the school board “might have been able to fill the gap with reserves,” he said, but now it has to make “some very difficult decisions.”

Tucker says his office has cut $6.5 million in spending over the past few months. That includes slashing money for furniture, equipment, professional development and travel expenses, but no jobs were axed.

School board chair Beth Mai took part in those cost-cutting efforts. She said the annual travel budget for she and her fellow trustees was chopped to $2,500 each from $4,600.

HRivers@postmedia.com

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