The Lambton Kent District School Board has issued layoff notices to 111 full-time equivalent teachers.
The board said Tuesday that 52 elementary school teachers and 59 high school teachers have been told they could be impacted by potential staffing changes.
The layoff notices are the result of significant reductions anticipated in education ministry grant funding due to declining enrolment and increased class size.
"These are challenging times and we understand that these funding changes will have a direct impact on programming, particularly in our rural schools which are experiencing a significant decline in enrolment," said Director of Education Jim Costello. "In the past, LKDSB has made staffing adjustments to accommodate declining enrolment; however the number of notifications for this year is higher than in previous years. The priority for senior administration remains focused on providing and maintaining as many classes as possible in our schools for our students."
The board expects the provincial government will release funding allocation details by the end of April.
Local Priority Funding, used in the past to fund some staff positions, will also expire August 31, 2019.
"When we have laid people off in the past we never lost a teacher," said Costello. "We've always been able to find work for them, either picking up a long term occasional or being first on the supply list to get daily occasional work the following September. I'm hopeful there will be some good news with the Grants for Student Needs coming at the end of the month to help mitigate this situation."
Lambton Kent Elementary Teachers’ Federation President Laurel Liddicoat-Newton is disappointed the announcement was made so soon.
"Usually we do our surplus, laid-off and redundancies at the end of April, and I believe that the board is reacting to the general cuts we're seeing to education across the province," said Liddicoat-Newton.
She said they're committed to their members, and the federation is going to work hard to protect them.
"Class sizes right now are large and we are very fearful about how adding two, three, four more children to a class is going to stretch the limit -- especially with our special needs children and those on the autism spectrum," said Liddicoat-Newton. "We're quite worried and concerned, and teachers are stressed about how they are going to meet these needs of their students next year."
Liddicoat-Newton is urging teachers to have faith, be patient, and rally with the board against the cuts.