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Tory cuts see 51 teacher redundancies at Rainbow board, up from 35 last year

Catholic board issues notices to 23 teachers, but boards say they're still waiting on final funding numbers
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James Clyke, president of OSSTF District 3, is seen here speaking at a rally in downtown Sudbury in 2015. (File)

The teachers' union representing secondary school teachers at the Rainbow District School Board says 51 of its members received redundancy notices last week, meaning they could be without a job come September.

Sudbury MPP Jamie West addressed the situation in the legislature this week.

“While in past years, there was a chance these educators would be reassigned, this government’s cuts to education makes the threat of job losses very real,” said West in the legislature Wednesday.

“These teachers are not resigning or retiring. They can be out of a job as a direct result of the Ford Conservative’s cuts to our education system.

“What does this government have to say to the hard-working educators in Sudbury worried that they will lose their jobs, and the children that will lose their teachers and suffer larger class sizes, cancelled courses and fewer opportunities?”

Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced last month high school class sizes will increase from an average of 22 to 28 over four years, and average class sizes for Grades 4 to 8 will increase by one student per classroom.

School boards have said the increase means thousands of teaching jobs will be lost, and have started issuing surplus notices to teachers, but the government has insisted the jobs can be eliminated through attrition.

James Clyke, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) District 3, representing Rainbow board secondary school teachers, said there's been a 25 per cent jump in redundancy notices among his members.

He said the board would normally issue redundancies to 35 teachers, but he said that has increased to 51 due to the Ford government's new policies.

The OSSTF also announced last week that half of the high school teachers at one North Bay-area board would receive redundancy notices.

But the chair of the Near North District School Board said he's confident none of the teachers will lose their jobs.

When a teacher is made redundant, they're laid off at the end of the school year, but have the opportunity to reapply for jobs that become available, Clyke said.

But of course, given plans to reduce teachers' ranks through attrition, there will be less vacancies available, he said.

Clyke said he's been visiting his members at Rainbow board secondary schools, and the stress level is high, especially among younger teachers.

He said this applies not only to the class size ratios, but the contract talks with the Ontario government that start next month — teachers' contracts expire at the end of August.

“People are really concerned about their jobs, especially the younger ones of course, and they're worried about whether job action is going to have to be taken, and if the government is going to sit down at the negotiating table and actually negotiate in an authentic manner,” Clyke said.

At the Sudbury Catholic District School Board, 23 redundancy notices were handed out by the board to its secondary teachers last month, according to teachers' union rep Maurizio De Poli.

“That is not usual,” said De Poli, president of the Sudbury secondary unit of of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association. “It's significantly higher than we have had in the past.”

He said the board — and the union — are waiting on more information from the government to see if some of these teacher redundancies might be able to be reversed.

“A lot of these teachers, they've been teaching some of them for almost 10 years,” De Poli said.

“They're young parents. They have mortgages, they have car payments, and they're obviously upset with this information they've received.”

In response to a call from Sudbury.com, Rainbow District School Board director of education Norm Blaseg released a written statement about the situation.

He said the board recently received general information from the province about funding envelopes it's receiving for 2019-2020 called Grants for Student Needs (GSNs) and Priorities and Partnerships funding (PPFs).

However, the board does not “have the details regarding the specific allocations for our school board,” Blaseg said in the statement.

“There are many funding envelopes within the GSNs that could affect the personnel complement,” he said.

“We are taking time to work through the details and will communicate directly with our federations on any matters pertaining to staffing as the budget process unfolds.”

Sudbury Catholic director of education Joanne Bénard also released a written statement.

“We are still in the early stages of the staffing and budget process for the 2019-2020 school year,” she said, in the statement.

“The staffing process is affected by both enrolment numbers and funding received from the Ministry of Education. We have been impacted by both of these factors and as we are early in the process of planning for the next school year, we must be conservative with staffing at this time.

“Currently, 23 teaching positions at the secondary level have been identified as redundant. Impacted teachers have been notified.”

-With files from Canadian Press 


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Heidi Ulrichsen

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