Thames Valley board breaks plan to cut 36 elementary classes: ‘Huge problem’

The deficit-ridden Thames Valley District school board has paused a plan to eliminate 36 classes at elementary schools across its system, affecting 58 teachers, after miscalculating enrollment numbers, its elementary teachers union says.

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“They over-anticipated the number of students they would have; enrollment numbers are down,” said Craig Smith, president of the Thames Valley district of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). “They were including. . . students that weren’t actually at school, or on attendance rolls.”

This despite the fact the London area is growing.

“There has been a significant increase in enrollment in the (London District) Catholic (school) board,” Smith said.

The new numbers left the board scrambling to reorganize because it’s funded by the Education Ministry on a per-student basis and already faced a $7.6-million budget shortfall in 2024-25, down from $18 million earlier this year.

Some deficit reductions came from cuts that included 58 elementary school and 24 high school teaching positions, 17 early childhood educator jobs and four posts in speech and psychological services.

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Thames Valley, Ontario’s fourth-largest school board, also faces an auditannounced by Education Minister Jill Dunlop Sept. 14 after a scandal over a Toronto retreat for senior administrators in August that cost more than $38,000.

Eighteen top board staffers traveled to and from Toronto by Via Rail business class for the three-day retreat that began Aug. 19. They stayed at the Marriott City Center Hotel, formerly the SkyDome Hotel, where rooms range from $374 to $1,199 a night, hotel staff say. The Jays played at home all three days.

In an internal memo sent Tuesday, obtained by The Free Press, acting education director Bill Tucker said “enrolment to date has not achieved projections, requiring further reorganization.”

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Tucker is filling in for education director Mark Fisher, who took paid leave last month after the retreat scandal.

“We are assessing the need to close further classrooms, taking into consideration school and community needs to minimize disruption,” Tucker said. “We acknowledge that this is a difficult process and we are committed to making thoughtful decisions to support our students and staff.”

Tucker even suggested rescheduling “meet the teacher” nights to “ensure students are in their new classrooms.”

Just 24 hours later, the message to elementary principals had changed dramatically.

“After careful consideration and in consultation with (the elementary teachers’ union), we are writing to confirm that effective immediately, no further reorganization will occur,” Tucker said in a follow-up memo to elementary principals Wednesday.

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An emergency meeting was held to discuss the impact of having 58 redundant teachers go into a supply pool for up to four years until permanent positions were found, the union’s Smith said.

“This was a huge problem for the board,” he said. “We would have had to file multiple grievances.”

Had the reorganization gone ahead, it would have saved the board $3.3 million, but cost the same amount to get the “collective agreement language back on track,” Smith said.

Instead, the board and union agreed to put off the staffing shakeup until spring and reassess the situation, he said.

“We had a situation where there would be redundant teachers, to fix the problem would be hugely complicated,” Smith said. “Pausing things. . . allows that problem to be solved.”

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The board’s 2024-25 budget, approved by trustees in June, shows the board had 60,026 elementary school pupils in the 2023-24 school year. The projected enrollment at elementary schools in 2024-25 was expected to dip by more than 400 pupils to 59,618 pupils.

One of Ontario’s largest school boards with an enrollment of about 84,000 students, the Thames Valley board has 154 elementary schools and 30 high schools.

The beleaguered board’s troubles in recent months began with the Aug. 19-21 retreat, uncovered by The Free Press last month.

The board announced Fisher was taking paid leave Sept. 9. Associate education director Linda Nicholls went on paid leave this week.

Acting associate director Andrew Canham announced Thursday he was stepping down because the board is “undergoing structural changes aimed at increasing public confidence.” He returned to his former job as superintendent of student achievement.

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On Tuesday, Tucker announced communications director Cheryl Weedmark and human resources superintendent Katie Osborne had left the board.

Two other senior administrators left for other Southwestern Ontario boards before the school year began.

Riley Culhane, the board’s former second-in-command, moved to the Seaforth-based Avon Maitland District school board as superintendent and was replaced by Canham. And superintendent Tracy Langelaan took a similar position at the London District Catholic school board.

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