TORONTO, Ont. – The Toronto District School Board is proposing to axe hundreds of jobs — including high school teachers, vice-principals and guidance staff — to tackle a nearly $55-million deficit, according to a staffing report.
The board — the largest in Canada — is considering the job cuts to balance its books for next year.
The TDSB’s Human Resources and Professional Learning Committee released a report Tuesday that recommends a decrease in high school teachers, guidance counsellors, vice-principals and office staff and suggests increased elementary teachers and early childhood educators in response to full-day kindergarten.
The report recommends a reduction of 248 high school teaching positions due to declining enrollment. It also called for a reduction of 14 vice-principals across the board as well as nearly 50 guidance staffers including librarians and more than 20 special education staffers and teachers.
According to TDSB spokesman Shari Schwartz-Maltz, staffing is nearly 66 per cent of the board budget.
“We do need to pass a balanced budget,” she said.
“We are looking at ways to work with the money that we have and the money that we think we’re going to get and in creative ways, do the best for our students.”
However, the report recommends the addition of 338 early childhood educator positions and 62 elementary teacher positions as full-day kindergarten is rolled out.
The committee will meet Thursday to consider the report.
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The school system is a mess since the liberals have had their hand in it way too long. But that’s what Toronto gets for continually voting in Liberals. You get exactly what you voted for. When it’s time to vote again, you will habitually re elect more of the same and complain about it. Sorry, but I find it hard to empathize. If you want change, then vote for it.
We should all thank the Union and teachers for this.
They think that there is a money cave that anytime they need money they just go there with a wheel barrel and take it out, the cave is call tax payers.
JK & SK should have NEVER been inplemented, it was the liberals who kissed the Union ass to get elected.
NOW STOP whinning for the people getting laid off.
Its about time the wake up and face reality. Full time JK was just another way to get day care implemented, just a different name. Liberal gov’t have no issues spending other folks money.
All day kindergarten has nothing to do with the TDSB having declining enrollment in high schools.
So what’s wrong with laying off teachers? Are they immune to the realities if life. Lower enrollment = fewer teachers required. Very basic math. We the taxpayers are not an employment agency paying people for redundant work. Welcome to the real world of supply and demand and not keep paying for the sake of paying.
With two kids under 7 in the system, it’s tough but necessary. The problem is two boards and the Union. Rather than working together, they work against one another. For example, I know of two schools, one public and one Catholic near me. The Catholic school was overcrowded on a small lot with 7-8 portables. Within a 5 minute walk was a public school of which 50% had been mothballed due to low enrollment. It’s property as about 5x the size. Guess what happened? The Catholic school was torn down and rebuilt as a 3 story school for for MILLIONS$$. The other one is still 1/2 empty. The other problems is wages. You cannot give every teacher raises and better benefits, when enrollment is flat or declining and the Province or City is broke.
As a parent with three kids in school, I can say they need to do two very important things to save money in Ontario’s education system:
a) Get rid of the morons who are constantly revising and destroying the school curriculum in our province. No focus on the basics any more like spelling, penmanship and arithmetic, which are fundamentals to success in the world. Instead, my kids are wasting time learning garbage like Media Literacy in grade one.
b) Abolish the “no child held back” principle and allow kids to fail in elementary schools again so that there is at least a relatively equivalent set of learners in the same class. Yes, it is traumatic, and I would hate for my child to ever be held back a grade, but if they are not performing up to the standards one expects of them, how will they ever learn to work hard or re-apply themselves. And a child who has not faced failure all his/her life, will inevitably be worse traumatized later in life when they can’t find a job.
Full Day Kindergarten is not needed for JK or SK. I never had it back in the 70′s and my kids never got it back in 2005. I agree to use those funds to help support the LD kids especially the one’s in high school since the support is not the same as elementary. Also get rid of those teachers who who only follow their job description, you know the one’s that just punch in and punch out!
mega city , mega city , mega city , it just screwed up toronto and it didn’t work.
The problem is that enrollment is low in the high schools. This has been discussed time and time again. Also the OSSTF deciding to reinstate extra-curriculars is because people actually transferred their kids to Catholic schools, and its effect was significant enough to change course. Good luck, but High schools were always 20-25 students to 1 teacher. When its 10 to 1, then yes, you NEED TO CUT TEACHERS
Which is more important? Teaching an extra 3hours of kindergarten to children who are tired out of their minds or teaching high school children who will make an immediate impact to society?
Full time kindergarten should never have been imposed. What a waste of money. Kids aged 4-5 should spend more time with their parents to bond. Everyones an ECE now. Whether they are qualified, that’s another story.
They should just cut the executive’s salaries and the deficit will be recovered! Not rocket science!
Here we go again!