Ahead of a special public school board meeting Tuesday night, in which trustees will elect a new chair and vice-chair for the year ahead, the Greater Essex local Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) will rally outside the school board office in response to recent budget cuts.
Facing a deficit of over $6.3-million, the Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) was required to submit a plan that would balance the budget by 2026-27, to be in compliance with the ministry.
That plan included eliminating the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in elementary schools, phasing out the IB program in secondary schools, restructuring supports for students in the Reaching Individual Success and Excellence (RISE) program, reducing unfunded psychologists and speech language pathologist positions, among others.
Speaking on AM800's Mornings with Mike and Meg, local ETFO president Mario Spagnuolo says education workers, parents, and community partners want to send a message to trustees about the cuts.
"We haven't forgotten about that decision, we won't be forgetting, and we'll be continuing to remind the community of these drastic cuts that have taken place. A lot of this is because of the provincial government funding cuts, but at the same time trustees had an opportunity to stand up to the cuts and to vote against decisions that impact our students with special needs, and that's who's been affected the most by this."
He says in total around 63 positions will be eliminated at the public board as a result of the plan.
"In the elementary panel, we will see approximately 34 special education teaching positions eliminated that serve students with disabilities ranging from learning disabilities, developmental disabilities, intellectual disabilities."
Spagnuolo says the board trustees should have advocated to the province for better funding.
"Yes there is a deficit, trustees could have found other ways to try and save money, but they also could have voted against a plan that the Ford Government is basically forcing them to accept, and if they did that, what it would have done is raise alarm bells in to what's happening in public education."
The rally gets underway at 5:30 p.m. at 451 Park Street West.
Noon Tuesday was also the deadline to apply for the open trustee position to represent wards 3, 4 and 10, left vacant when Sarah Cipkar resigned last month.