Eighty-two teachers with the Lambton Kent District School Board, who were rumoured to be out of work by the next school year, will be brought back in 2019.
The board's treasury secretary received documents on May 24 regarding the recall and that information was shared with trustees at a board meeting last night, according to Board Chair Jane Bryce.
"We're quite excited that we are able to see this happen," said Bryce. "We know how important teachers are to students and to delivering programs... they're so important to us."
On April 16, over 100 redundancy notices were given to teachers in the LKDSB. These notices indicated 52 elementary school teachers and 59 high school teachers were made aware of potential staffing changes. The notices were the result of reductions in education ministry grant funding because of declining enrolment and the plan for increased class sizes.
The board will be bringing back 41 secondary and 41 elementary teachers. Some of the remaining 29 teachers who were affected by the original cut already planned to retire at the end of the 2018-2019 school year, according to Bryce. The school board will not be looking to fill those positions.
“We understand these are challenging times," said Bryce. "Based on the funding reductions, changes to class sizes and declining enrolment, we know that schools may be staffed differently than in previous years. As we continue to work through our staffing and budgeting processes, we remain committed to providing and maintaining supports for students in schools.”
Despite teachers staying put in their classrooms, Bryce said there is an expectation that the amount of staff will be cut down in the next four years.
"The ministry of education has called this increasing class sizes," said Bryce. "You can't drop all of the teaching positions at once, so we have attrition funding to help us get to that number."
In a statement on Wednesday, the board said it expects funding changes will continue to have a direct impact on programming, particularly in its rural schools which are experiencing a significant decline in enrolment.