Thames Valley teachers sound alarm on budget cuts: ‘Students short changed’

Thames Valley teachers are raising alarms over a lack of classroom resources as the school board struggles with a $7.6-million deficit.

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“People have a right to know. This is a problem,” said a high school department head who asked not to be named. “The biggest challenge is that every student doesn’t have access to what we need them to have access to. I have more students in my department and less money.

School budgets are decided by the Thames Valley District school board, she said.

“So that is the board’s deficit coming down,” she said. “We’re getting money to educate kids. Where is it going? It’s going to places that are not directly supporting student learning.

“I need every dollar I have to support the curriculum. We can’t do field trips because we can’t afford it.”

The Free Press talked to three department heads about the state of their classrooms. They all cited a lack of funds for their students as significant.

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“Our students are being shortchanged,” said one teacher, who did not want her name published. “They are not being given the same opportunities as five to 10 years ago.

The Thames Valley board is being audited by the Ministry of Education in the wake of a $39,000 three-day retreat for 18 board administrators at the Toronto Blue Jays stadium hotel in August, details of which were first reported by The London Free Press.

Mark Fisher, education director since 2019, went on paid leave last month in the fall of the Aug. 19-21 retreat.

The board’s budget shortfall for the 2024-25 school year was reduced by $11 million in the spring by cuts that included 58 elementary and 24 high school teaching positions, along with 17 early childhood educator jobs and four positions in speech and psychological service.

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The budget for school trips was slashed in half to $500,000.

When money that could be helping students is being used for expensive retreats “it’s pretty deflating,” another department head said.

“Over the last number of years, things that were happening at the board office were valued more than what was happening in the classrooms and money was being funneled into those areas more so.”

Another factor impacting his department’s budget is “the amount of money coming down from provincial level.

“I’m working with 50 per cent less than 2018,” he said. “When you consider inflation and enrollment at the school I’m at, it has gone up by 50 per cent. It’s a significant decline.”

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Craig Smith, president of the Thames Valley local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said elementary teachers are feeling the impact of budget cuts.

“There are few if any pencils. There is little if any paper. There are no bathroom supplies,” he said. “It’s having a real impact on students and teachers.”

Fisher earned $326,000 as head of the board in 2023 — more than the $306,000 paid to the education director running the Toronto District school board.

Bill Tucker, a former education director with the Thames Valley board, returned last month on an interim basis.

He said he and Beth Mai, chair of the board of trustees, are working to restore faith in the school board and “getting money back into schools.”

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