Additions, subtractions for teaching positions at Catholic school board

The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (HSCDSB) will cut nine full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching jobs as a result of a decrease in its projected student enrolment for the upcoming school year.

In this year’s balanced budget – passed during Wednesday night’s board trustee meeting – Chris Spina, superintendent of business for the Catholic school board, reports a projection of 16 fewer elementary students and more than 60 fewer secondary students.

“We’re just completing our staffing process this week, so with retirements and those additional positions, there will be minimal impact,” Spina said.

While a few full-time teaching positions are on the chopping block, the Catholic school board received money from the province in order to introduce a handful of new positions.

There’s new funding for 1.2 FTE mental health workers, an experiential learning lead and a teaching position specifically for helping grade seven and eight students make the adjustment to high school.

In addition, a total of four FTE positions will be hired in order to form a ‘multidisciplinary team’ in order to help HSCDSB staff better understand the needs of students with special needs.

“The team could include any combination of a psychologist, behaviour specialist, speech-language pathologist or registered social worker,” stated Spina in his report to the director of education.

The provincial dollars for the additional staffing flowed into school board coffers as the result of the Ministry of Education’s Grants for Student Needs.  

“Those positions have not been staffed yet,” Spina told SooToday. “We budgeted for them, but haven’t actually staffed them as of yet.”

This year’s budget - which was balanced due to a “slight reduction” in staff - otherwise contained no major cuts or belt tightening measures, said Spina.