Reduction in class sizes means hiring additional teachers
The Ministry of Education’s announcement Wednesday that class sizes are going to be reduced beginning this fall is good news for those seeking full-time teaching jobs.
Terry Lyons, superintendent of human resources for the WindsorEssex Catholic District School Board, said ministry calculations call for hiring the equivalent of 10.8 full-time teachers. That number could increase depending on the distribution of students at different schools.
“The result of this is we’re going to have to hire more staff,” Lyons said. “Obviously we don’t know the full impact for the board, but as you shrink class size your staffing costs go up.
“The changes are across the whole system and some schools will be harder to staff than others based on student distribution.”
The changes to class sizes are the result of provincial contract negotiations to extend the various teacher unions’ deals for an additional two years into 2019. The current deals were set to expire in August.
It will require $56 million in the elementary deal to hire teachers and early childhood educators so class sizes can be reduced to a cap of 30 students in most full-day kindergarten classes next school year and down to 29 the following year.
The full breakdown in changes in class size calls for an average of 26 students in full-day kindergarten with at least 90 per cent of classes having 30 or fewer students in 2017-18.
The average class size this fall for Grades 4 to 8 will be 24.17 students. That average will drop over five years to 22.85 students.
Currently the province funds full-day kindergarten based on 26 students per class.
Grades 1 to 3 are supposed to average 20 students or fewer with a hard cap of 23. Grades 4 through 8 are supposed to average 24.5 students or fewer with a hard cap of 29 students in a class.
The Catholic board was at the provincial averages in full-day kindergarten and the primary grades and averaged 24.9 students in Grades 4 through 8.
The ministry also announced an increase of $432 per student in the general students’ needs grants. Boards will get $12,100 per student.
However, that’ll provide no additional breathing room financially for school boards. The two-year contract extensions call for four per cent pay increases spread over that time and include other contract improvements.
“Whatever they give us, it’ll just cover the current costs,” Lyons said.
Ontario will spend $23.8-billion on education in 2017-18, up $800-million from last year.
The province also announced more money to support indigenous education and two per cent increases to cover the rising costs of transportation and utilities.
The Liberal government also created a Local Priorities Fund.
The new fund, which gets seed money of $218.9 million, is to be used to hire more teachers and education support staff for special education, at-risk students and adult education.
“It’s great news whenever you get additional funding,” Lyons said.
“The provincial government is recognizing that boards need more special education funding.
“It’ll help us to spread our resources out to help more students.”
The province calculates the new local priority funding will result in 875 more teachers being hired and between 1,600 and 1,830 educational support staff.
Also announced was a three per cent increase ($800,000) in the Community Use of Schools Allocation.
That increased is aimed at reducing costs for community groups wanting to use school facilities.
“It helps not having to pass on additional costs to groups,” Lyons said. “We want our facilities used, but we can’t keep operating them at a big deficit.”
Lyons said last year the board had to cover a $155,000 deficit for use of their facilities by community groups.
Officials with the Greater Essex County District School Board were less sure of how Wednesday’s announcement will impact their operations.
“We’re just processing the information and trying to understand the impact on the board,” said Cathy Lynd, superintendent of business for the public board.
“There were no surprises. The information is consistent with prior years announcements on the phasing in of grant changes.”
The board’s average class sizes this year are 24.4 for full-day kindergarten and the primary grades and 24.0 for Grades 4 through 8.
The public board had 93.2 per cent of its primary classes with 20 or fewer students.
The contract extensions also call for a one-time payment for professional development, supplies and equipment equivalent to a 0.5-percent salary increase.
Another $3.5 million is allocated to school boards for professional learning.
The provincial government is recognizing that boards need more special education funding.