Some new numbers regarding education job cuts in the North Bay area have been announced.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation has released a statement saying that the Near North District School Board serving North Bay, Parry Sound, Mattawa, and Almaguin Highlands, and headquartered in the riding of Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, will be issuing redundancy notices to 121 of the 240 high school teachers employed by the board.
The union says the potential layoffs are a direct result of the Ford government's cuts to education in the province.
Glen Hodgson is the OSSTF District Four president.
He and other members of the local union gathered outside of Vic Fedeli's North Bay office on Tuesday.
“The teachers that are cut today represent over 500 years of combined teaching experience and we are looking at a cutback of over 600 courses that will no longer be available to the students of the near north. And we are looking at re-timetabling and trying to figure out what courses, what programs, will even be left at the end of the day once all these cuts percolate through the system. And we know for sure, that is absolutely going to be devastating. Also, please understand this is not fearmongering by the union.” said Hodgson.
The union says this information comes directly from the Near North District School Board and that notices will be handed out by May 1st.
CTV News has not received a comment from the province.
