TDSB staff delivered to Trustees their recommendations on school-based staffing allocations for next year. The whole Board will vote on school-based staffing allocations at a special meeting next week on March 28.
The APA was advised by our Trustee Howard Goodman the following:
- roughly 80% of the TDSB’s budget ($2B out of $2.6B) pays for school-based staff and is set through this process. The remainder of the TDSB’s budget is set from mid-April through June.
- TDSB staff estimates that the TDSB is facing an $85M funding shortfall for next year, and their school-staffing recommendations would fill $51M of that gap. Filling the remainder of the gap, an estimated $34M, would be part of the second phase of the TDSB’s budget discussions.
- staff recommends:
- 400 new Early Childhood Educators, 200 new elementary teachers, and 400 new lunchroom supervisors (mostly to roll out full day Kindergarten).
- no significant changes in the number of Special Needs Assistants, Swim Instructors, and Secondary-school-based Safety Monitors.
- reduction in the number of Educational Assistants from 493 to 63. The remaining EAs would be deployed in French Immersion SK classrooms to help students rapidly adjust to a French-speaking environment. This brings TDSB closer in line to the use of EAs in other Boards across Ontario, and similar to the use of EAs in schools in North York and Etobicoke prior to amalgamation.
- reduction of in the number of Secondary teachers by 200 (from 5845 to 5645). This is in keeping with the recent demographic trend of fewer teenagers as the “echo” generation graduates and also to move the average secondary student to teacher ratio from 20.9 to 21.4. The Ministry funding standard is 22 students per teacher.
- reduction of 39 elementary VP positions (from 257 to 218) to move the TDSB closer to the Provincial funding formula.
- reduction of school Office Clerical positions from 1224 to 1090, to bring the TDSB in line with Ministry funding.
The numbers included in the Staff Allocation Report reflect the reduction in the total complement of staff and not the total number of layoffs.
Retirements, resignations and promotions will account for some downsizing of staff however it is anticipated that there will be layoffs.
Although he does not prefer these recommendations, Trustee Goodman has advised the APA that his initial thought is to support these recommendations. He believes that if the trustees reject the most contentious of these recommendations (EAs and Office Clerks), the TDSB will be unable to balance the budget. Boards, including TDSB, that have failed to balance their budgets in the past have been put under supervision by the Ministry of Education, and budget cuts have then been made.
Before next week’s TDSB trustee vote, Trustee Goodman is asking for parental input on the TDSB staff recommendations, including whether the Trustees should not balance the TDSB’s budget with the potential that the Minister of Education may place the TDSB under supervision. He can be reached at Telephone: 416-395-8403
Email: howard.goodman@tdsb.on.ca
If you want to read the full report, here is the link.