Hamilton public school board issuing layoff notices for 59 jobs

A preliminary budget for Hamilton's public school board is cutting the equivalent of about 59 full-time jobs this September, although many positions are expected to be reinstated before then.

School-based staffing estimates presented for the 2022-23 school year cut 32.6 elementary teachers, 13 designated early childhood educators and 21 custodians.

The reductions are offset by the addition of 7.66 secondary teachers, mostly due to a projected enrolment increase of 115 students.

Associate director Stacey Zucker said finance staff is still in the process of calculating the board's provincial funding for the coming school year and the staffing estimates are being set now to meet April union layoff-notification deadlines.

The board can add but not cut jobs after the deadlines, and the final budget in June will restore educator positions, she told trustees at their March 31 finance and facilities committee meeting.

But Zucker said the 21 cut custodial jobs are unlikely to continue because they were only added with the help of a one-time provincial COVID-19 grant to enhance school cleaning for the current school year.

The Canadian Union of Public Employees positions also include four workers who distribute masks and other personal protective equipment to schools from the Education Centre, she said.

Zucker said the 2022-23 budget will no longer be allowed to tap the $6 million in reserves trustees approved for the current school year to reduce elementary class sizes, which added 77.3 teachers and 32 early childhood educators.

But she said the elimination of those positions will be partially offset by a one-time $7.1-million COVID-19 recovery grant for 2022-23 that will ease the return to normal class sizes.

The board has yet to allocate $2.9 million of that money and is also running a current-budget surplus of $900,000, she added, and trustees will get updates on where staff positions can be added before the budget is finalized by the end of June.

It's good news," Zucker said. We will be able to add supports directly to schools to support students."

Trustee Becky Buck said this is the first year since she took office in 2018 that the province has released grant information prior to union staffing deadlines.

It always feels a little icky when we have to do it this way," she said of the preliminary budget layoff notices.

But I appreciate the approach and just trying to be conservative and making sure, when push comes to shove, that we're allotting things in the right way."