By Pepper Parr
April 18th, 2019
BURLINGTON, ON
There are 150 elementary school teachers with the Halton District School Board who have been told that come September 1st, they don’t have a job.
The “redundancy” notices they received were required under the collective agreement the school board has with the elementary teachers union.
That’s the bad news – and there is more to come.
Director Miller
Stuart Miller, Director of Education for the school board said we will learn next week what we will have to issue in terms of redundancy notices to high school teachers.
In an interview Miller said that some of the elementary teachers might get recalled but at this point we still don’t know what our grant structure from the province is going to be. We usually have that information by now – it might be the end of May before we know what we will have in the way of grant money, what individual schools need in the way of teaching staff and what we will have in the way of retirements.
The provincial decision to increase the number of students in elementary school classes after grade 4 and the need to have bigger high school classes isn’t helping.
Redundancy notices are issued on the basis of seniority which means the newer and usually younger teachers are the first to get let go.
Teachers reminding the public just what it is they do.
Miller did add that the notices have to be issued at this point – “I am hoping that the province sees us as a board with a growing population. We are opening a new school in Oakville.
“I am working with all the secondary school principals to learn what they think their needs are going to be.
“Right now we are dealing with a lot of if’s and maybes.”
While the Halton |Board has a good working relationship with its unions – those unions don’t like what they see coming their way from the province. Think strikes in the educational sector.
Cold comfort for those teachers that got the letters telling them that there is no place for them come September.
I distinctly remember a TV news story announcing there would be a reduction of 7,000 plus teachers coming, but at the same time the Education Minister making the announcement on TV stated that “there will be no layoffs, the reductions will be by attrition.”
I guess “surplussed” and “layoff” don’t mean the same thing anymore in Ford-speak, but actually mean “attrition”.
Somebody ask Miller what English comprehension his schools teach students.
Anybody else remember this press line?
Just more lies to me. School closings were not enough.
Pardon me again – another slip of lip.
I guess I should have used the word “redundancy”.
I was used to the term surplus from previous school cuts. This is the word I thought I heard in the news story, and it stuck. No difference really.
My message is the same.
… in other news it looks like we could be dropping $100M on something more important than public education. Cheers to the Ford government for having their priorities in order and focusing on the issues that really matter.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-beer-corner-convenience-store-ontario-1.5101868
I thought that our young people are our future,, It is our job to protect and educate them. How can losing really great teachers who are so important to our youth help them become responsible, well-educated adults?