Near North Board chair says he's 'optimistic' 121 redundancy notices will be recalled

The chair of the Near North District School Board says the union representing teachers is causing 'fear and anxiety' by going public withprojected layoff notices.

The Ontario Secondary Teachers' Federation announced on Tuesday that 114.7 full time equivalent positions, representing 121 actual teaching positions, are being cut in the board.

However, the chair of the board says an annual process needs to move forward before the numbers are finalized.

Jay Aspin, chair of the board, says the redundancy notices were issued to the 121 teachers.

"Every year in April, we have to notify the unions of reductions or surplus teachers," he said.

"We then wait for the [provincial] grants and when we hear from the government, we match up the figures, do an analysis and determine from that exactly how many layoffs there are if there are any."

Aspin admits 121 redundancy noticesis higher than in previous years. He says administration is being very "cautious" with the figures so "they want to make sure if they err, they erron the correct side."

He says the board is expecting to know in May what the final number of layoffs will be.

A number of changes are being made to Ontario's education system. The province is increasing average class sizes in intermediate and high school grades, introducing mandatory e-learning courses and cutting positions it says through attrition.

Premier Doug Ford has said in the past no job cuts would happen as a result. Aspin says he's confident that promise will be kept.

"I'm optimistic," he said. "I've indicated to our teachers that I'm optimistic. The government has made this commitment."

'Completely floored'

But the union representing the teachers isn't so confident.

Glen Hodgson, president of District 4 with OSSTF, says he was "completely shocked" when he heard how many redundancy notices went out in the North Bay area.

"We were aware with all the changes that the Conservatives and the Ford government have proposed on top of Mr. Fedeli's budget that there were likely going to be some cuts," he said.

"But we had no idea the cuts would be this deep. I was completely floored when I got that number."

Hodgson says if the cuts happen, they will be based on seniority, meaning younger staff will be most affected.

"At present, we have very young staff in both Parry Sound and Almaguin," he said.

"In both those areas, thestaff were cut by three quarters and a little more than that in Almaguin. So essentially, all the teaching staff was declared redundant."

In other areas of the province, the full impact of increased high school class sizes has yet to be realized. The Sudbury Catholic School Board says it is early in the process, but so far, it has notified 23 teachers of redundancies.

The Rainbow District School Board in Sudbury says it's still working through the process.