Layoff notices issued by OCDSB as part of $20M in cuts

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Academic staff whose jobs are being eliminated as part of $20 million in budget cuts at Ottawa’s largest school board have received notice.

Under collective agreements, staff members at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board who are to be laid off must be notified before the end of March, ahead of the regular budget debate.

Last week, facing a $20-million deficit, trustees reluctantly approved cutting about 150 positions, including about 80 non-academic positions to save $7.08 million and about 70 staff in discretionary academic positions to save $8.823 million. Some of the reductions will come through attrition, including retirements and resignations, not filling vacant positions and eliminating other positions.

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Academic staffing represents about 55 per cent of the total operating budget of about $1.2 billion and includes school-based and centrally-assigned roles. Discretionary academic roles include principals and vice-principals, special education teachers, English as a Second Language teachers, instructional coaches and consultants.

Required academic positions include classroom teachers, student success teachers, guidance teachers, learning support teachers and teacher-librarians in high schools as well as reading-intervention teachers in elementary schools.

The number of required teacher positions is generated by a provincial formula and is tied directly to provincial guidelines. The staffing allocation has been reduced by 46.78 full-time-equivalent positions because of a modest decrease in projected enrolment next fall due to declining birth rates and fewer international students.

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Stephanie Kirkey, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation’s  Ottawa-Carleton bargaining unit, confirmed that some members received notices on Wednesday and Thursday, but did not have an exact tally of the numbers.

The board did not respond to a request from the Ottawa Citizen for more detail.

At this point, the OCDSB does not know how much it will receive in provincial funding, but senior administrators are not optimistic there will be more money.

“It’s unfortunate that these positions had to be cut,” Kirkey said. “The system needs more funding.”

Cuts to non-academic positions, which account for 26 per cent of the OCDSB operating budget, are still to come, along with a further $4 million in additional trims.

Non-academic positions include roles in administration, business and corporate services, employee and school support services as well as school support positions such as educational assistants, early childhood educators, office staff, social workers and psychologists.

Trustees heard last week that upcoming cuts would include 14 education assistants.

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