Nearly 800 TDSB positions may be cut by the fall, document shows 

A kindergarten classroom is seen at an elementary school in Toronto on Tuesday, January 9, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Close to 800 positions within the Toronto District School Board will likely be cut in the upcoming school year, according to a notice filed with the province.

The termination of employment form, which has been filed with the Ministry of Labour, is offering a more detailed picture of just how many jobs could be eliminated at the board, which was one of eight school boards put under provincial supervision in the past year. According to the document, 792 positions are set to be cut in the fall.

The document notes that, “It is not expected that final numbers will exceed estimates and it is likely that final numbers will be less than set out (in the form).”

While the exact number of jobs that will be cut in September has not been finalized, John Weatherup, president of Toronto Education Workers CUPE local 4400, said the document seems to show that nearly every single one of the board’s 500 plus schools will be impacted.

“The bigger impact is the closure of programs and services,” he said in an email to CP24, adding that outdoor education has been “gutted” and model schools are now without additional resources, “leaving our most vulnerable students and parents at risk.”

One alarming cut to special education, he said, is the elimination of 15 diagnostic kindergarten classes, which provide smaller class sizes and more support to children with complex medical, physical, and developmental needs.

“This list keeps growing,” Weatherup said.

Some of these cuts have been previously reported by media, including a reduction of nearly 300 teaching positions this year.

Officials previously confirmed that due to “declining enrolment,” 289 teaching positions will be cut across the board for the 2026-27 school year, though it noted those numbers are subject to change. This includes about 150 positions at model schools.

Last month, the TDSB also confirmed to CP24 that 218 central staff positions will be eliminated, along with 91 vacant positions. Forty vice-principal roles will also be cut across the board.

TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird told CP24 that the number of employees who lose their jobs will be significantly lower than the number provided in the ministry document.

“The numbers submitted to the Ministry of Labour represent the total number of positions that are being reduced -- largely due to having approximately 8,000 fewer students this year and next,” Bird said in an email.

“Between retirements and the filling of vacancies, the final number of people impacted will likely be closer to 240.”

Speaking at a news conference announcing the start of collective bargaining between the province and the five major education unions on Wednesday, Martha Hradowy, the president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said cuts are having a massive impact in the classroom.

“Boards across this province are announcing cuts to staffing that I have never seen in my time in education,” Hradowy said.

“These cuts are not simply tied to enrolment and they are not being reinvested back into classrooms despite what the minister may claim. Every lost position means fewer support for students and greater strain on the workers who remain.”

‘Bumping’ notices sent out

Hradowy noted that this year, the TDSB sent out notices on bumping, which allows those with more seniority who have been declared surplus to bump more junior members out of their jobs.

“This is the first time, I believe since 2019, that the secondary school teachers in the TDSB have received bumping notices and that’s significant.”

In an email provided to CP24, the TDSB informed secondary school teachers last month that even those who have not been declared surplus at their respective schools could be impacted by bumping.

“…some teachers who are not currently surplus to their school may be bumped from their position by an unplaced, more senior teacher. A teacher affected by a bump may therefore be declared tentatively surplus to the board,” the email read.

“We want to assure you that every effort will be made to place teachers into positions as the secondary staffing process continues throughout June, July, and August.”

Bird said the bumping process “happens every single year” with various unionized employees.

An occasional teacher with the TDSB, who CP24 has granted anonymity due to her concerns about the impact speaking publicly could have on future employment opportunities, said she and many other new teachers are bracing for impact as surplus notices go out at schools across the board.

“I’m impacted because all those teachers that got bumped… they are all going to either leave teaching or they are going to try to apply to the temporary positions,” she said.

“Whenever they say there is a teacher shortage, we all laugh.”

Speaking at an unrelated news conference this week, Education Minister Paul Calandra said Ontario’s teacher shortage is “an absolute reality.”

The province has recently announced that teacher education programs in Ontario will move from a two-year program to a 12-month, three-semester program in an effort to bring more educators into the system.

Surplus process ‘frustrating’

“The fact is that is that we have far more retirements than we have people coming into the system. So whilst there is a period of adjustment, every year we go through this, it frankly is a bit frustrating,” Calandra said.

“I can imagine how frustrating it is for teachers that every year at this time, we kind of go through the process where we serve surplus notices before we can actually say who is actually going to be in the classroom and it is something that frustrates me quite a bit.”

He said he would like to find “a better way of doing this.”

“We can’t just do this every year to teachers. Every year you get these layoff notices, surplus notices, and then every September you are brought back into the classroom but you have months where you have to worry about whether you have a job or not,” Calandra said.

“We’ve got to figure this out. It’s frustrating. It is frustrating to teachers and the reality today doesn’t match the reality in September and we’ve got to figure out a better way of doing this for teachers.”

David Mastin, the president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said raising class sizes is undoubtedly having an impact on teacher surpluses this year.

“The TDSB, prior to being taken over by this government… trustees leveraged the opportunity to lower class sizes,” he said.

“When the ministry comes in and takes over and says we are going to raise class sizes in the middle of the school year, that’s going to have an impact as well when we start talking about layoffs and surpluses at the end of the year.”

Mastin noted that it has become “very challenging to keep teachers and education workers in the system.”

“We know that there is at least 40,000 trained teachers in this province that are not working. And we are hearing government talk about a shortage. There are ways to address a shortage when you have qualified and certified people out in communities that could take these jobs,” he said, adding that compensation is a part of that.

“One of the ways is to improve working conditions and we know that one of the big factors for people leaving the system is the working conditions, the lack of respect, the lack of support, (and) the lack of resources.”