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Ottawa’s four school boards will be hiring almost 500 teachers before September.

The English public board will have about 166 new teaching positions, not including replacements for retiring teachers. The English Catholic board will be hiring about 140 full and part-time teachers. The French Catholic board is looking for about 140 teachers, while the French public board needs about 40.

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There a number of reasons. There are retirements, of course, but student enrolment has also increased.

“Ottawa is one of the few cities in the province that will continue to see an increase in the child population,” said Michael Carson, chief financial officer with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, where about 120 of the 166 positions are needed because of an increased enrolment of over 1,200 students.

The province is also requiring smaller class sizes in kindergartens and more guidance counsellors for Grades 7 and 8 students. About a dozen new teachers are needed because the kindergarten class size cap has been cut from 30 to 29 students. About 20 guidance counsellor positions are to be filled because the education ministry has increased the ratio of guidance staff in Grade s7 and 8 to match that in secondary schools.