Facing $20M budget squeeze, OCDSB looks to eliminate 150 jobs

Trustees at Ottawa’s largest school board will contemplate cutting 150 jobs at an upcoming budget meeting as they face a $20 million shortfall in next year’s budget.

According to the recommendations before trustees at the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, the staffing reductions will come through through attrition, including retirements and resignations, not filling vacant positions and eliminating positions.

If approved, the total savings would be about $16 million. The anticipated cuts include about 80 non-academic positions to save $7.08 million and about 70 staff in discretionary academic roles such as e-learning, to save $8.823 million, according to a report to be discussed by trustees on March 18.

Trustees were warned in January that they face “painful” decisions. There have been four deficit budgets in a row for the board, which used up surplus funds to finance previous deficit budgets in 2021-22 and 2022-23, and had an unexpected deficit last year. 

The board still owes the province $11.1 million from last year’s deficit and had an unexpected $4.2-million shortfall this year. 

“The district does not have the accumulated financial reserves to run a deficit budget,” said the recommendations. “At the time of this report, the provincial budget has not been released and we have no indication of any substantive funding for increased cost pressures or new initiatives.”

Staffing eats up about 81 per cent of the board’s $1.2 billion budget, with academic staffing accounting for $659 million and non-academic staffing accounting for about $315 million.

Most staffing decisions must be made by March 25, before the regular budget process, in order to meet timelines in collective agreements.

The number of required teacher positions is generated by a provincial formula and is tied directly to ministry guidelines on enrolment, class size and collective agreement requirements.

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. Discretionary academic positions include principals and vice-principals, special education teachers, English as a Second Language teachers, instructional coaches and consultants.

The report also recommends decreasing the staffing allocation by 46.78 full-time equivalent positions due to a modest decrease in projected enrolment next fall. That’s being attributed to declining birth rates and fewer international students.

The number includes 18 full-time equivalent e-learning teachers beginning in the next school year, as a result of increasing the student-to-teacher ratio to 35:1. Because the positions are provincially funded, this will not result in any cost savings for the school board. 

Non-academic positions account for 26 per cent of the OCDSB’s operating budget. They include jobs 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.

In past years, the union would have a better idea by now of how many union members fit into each category being considered for reductions, said Stephanie Kirkey, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 25. 

“Details are lacking,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting those details. There will be impacts all over the system.”

Even though some reductions fit under the “discretionary” category, the jobs still have a significant role to play in the system, said Kirkey. Instructional coaches, for example, are not classroom teachers, but they are assigned to support teachers and student learning, she said.

“They may not have 30 students in front of them, but they play an important role.”

Melody Gondek, the president of OSSTF’s educational support professionals unit, which represents over 800 clerical, office and technical workers, said staff who work in the central office will be more affected, but there will be a trickle-down effect throughout the system.

“Everything that crosses our desks is keeping the system intact.”

Philip Battison, the president of the plant support staff unit, which has over 800 members, said custodial workers are assigned according to the square footage of schools.

With new schools under construction, Battison is not expecting a significant impact on workers. However, he adds that the board should consider increasing the cost when community groups use schools on weekends to recover costs.

Although the board has not yet received provincial funding for next year, the staffing cuts and the $20 million shortfall are expected to be permanent.

Meanwhile, the OCDSB is also in the midst of a sweeping elementary program review that has recommended significant changes to elementary programs, including changes to French immersion, and phasing out alternative schools and 39 classes for children with special needs. The students from these classes will be integrated into mainstream classrooms.

“Schools are already understaffed,” said Kate Dudley Logue, the vice-president of community outreach with the Ontario Autism Coalition.

“They already can’t find replacement staff when education assistants are sick. It’s a lot of cuts when the school board is facing so many changes,” she said. “It will need to be an all-hands-on-deck situation. Mainstream classes will get more and more complex. There’s not enough staff on hand as it is.”

Cynthia Steeves, president of CUPE Local 2357, which represents teaching assistants and early childhood educators at the Ottawa Catholic School Board, said she expects there will be downstream effects at the Catholic board as parents seek to change school boards, especially over the boundary changes that will accompany the elementary review.

Steeves said her members are experiencing unprecedented levels of violence, and a growing number of workers without qualifications are working at schools. Of her 3,200 members, Steeves estimates about 1,500 are unqualified and about half of vacant jobs are filled by unqualified staff.

“If you think it’s a scary time now, wait until the boundary changes go through,” she said.