Special education jobs on the chopping block, union warns, as trustees to consider deficit plan

As the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) faces a multimillion-dollar deficit this school year, trustees are being asked to approve a plan that puts more than 30special education positionson the chopping block next year.

Mario Spagnuolo is the local president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. The union issued a statement Friday about the potential cuts, which will be discussed at a school board meeting Tuesday.

"It's a plan that's trying to save money on the backs of students with special needs," Spagnuolo said. "The real issue is, the Ford government has cut money to the education system and now our students that are most vulnerable are going to pay the price."

The board is running a $6.4-million deficit in the 2024-25 school year. Staff at the time warned that because of the size of the deficit, the board needed to prepare a deficit elimination plan now on the agenda.

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The Greater Essex County District School Board must file a multi-year financial recovery plan to Ontario's Ministry of Education, warns Shelley Armstrong, the board's superintendent of business. CBC's Dalson Chen reports.

The multi-year financial recovery plan already considers previous savings, including cutting 22 full-time equivalent positions (FTE) from the realignment ofa French immersion program and RISE program and declining enrolment, reductions in board initiatives, office supplies and textbooks. Those measures were previouslyimplemented and included in this year's deficit projection.

But it also suggests cutting 34.5 FTEs from the RISE program, as well as five from speech language and pathology, 15.5 from central office staff, and nearly four from the board's different levels of international baccalaureateprograms. The plan also cuts two unfunded social worker positions. In total, the plan cuts 62.8 FTEs.

The RISE program is a half-day program that focuses on math and literacy for students with identified disabilities.

Spagnuolo says the union'sposition is that trustees should say no to the plan, saying that the board's deficit is a result of chronic under-funding by the province.

"We are going to be asking trustees to defy the Ministry of Education and to say, 'we refuse to make cuts where we know it's going to hurt kids,'" he said. "If the ministry believes that they're funding schools appropriately, then they can come in themselves and try to find the efficiencies that they're asking trustees to find.

"We don't have a spending problem in our board. We have a funding problem."

Changes would take place for the beginning of next school year, with the goal of a balanced budget by 2026-27, administrationwrote in the report.

It's not the first time the RISE program has been threatened with cuts, and the board says special educationruns a deficit of more than $10 million a year board-wide.

Joanna Conrad is a parent of a daughter with Down Syndrome who is in a differentprogram from RISE. She says the board is already facing a staffing shortagewithout these cuts.

"We already are at an extreme staff shortage in the schools. How are we going to support these students? If they remove RISE, there's no coming back," Conrad said. "There's no bringing RISE back. If they remove psych assessments, if they remove, you know, speech pathology. If they remove all ofthese types of services that are provided That's never coming back.

"Essentially what they're saying is that these people [are] dispensable and that the students are ... unworthy of these supports. And they have failed to provide any type of a plan in terms of what would happen thereafter."

Shannon Hazel is a former teacher with six years of experience in special education.She urged the board to consider its"moral obligation" to students over financing.

"We already have limited resources for our most vulnerable learners, and students with special needs are on endless wait lists," she said. "You know, we have a moral obligation to these children."

Vicki Houston, the board's directorof education, said Monday evening that no final decision has been made on the RISE program.

Earlier this year, aspokesperson for the minister of education said in a statement the government has provided more than $483 million in funding for the 2024-25 school year, an increase of $10.2 million over the 2023-24 school year.

"Since coming into government, we have supported the hiring of 9,000 additional education staff, including 3,000 teachers. We will continue to support students in getting back to basics on reading, writing, and math in Windsor classrooms."

The plan will be discussed at Tuesday's board meeting, and several delegations havealready lined up to speak.