The Thames Valley District School Board (TVDSB) wants the province to consider the negative impacts of cuts to education on students in the London area.

The Ministry of Education recently introduced a series of changes that include mandatory e-learning, bigger class sizes and cuts to autism supports.

The news sparked province-wide protests and planned walkouts. Area school boards have also come out with projected shortfall figures that would result in hundreds of teacher layoffs.

The TVDSB has not yet projected the overall financial impact of the proposed changes, however, the board has determined there will be an impact on student learning and programming.

"Trustees are advocates. It's important we bring our concerns forward to the ministry," said board chair Arlene Morell.

Morell sent a three-page letter to the ministry on Wednesday outlining those concerns. This comes a day after the board passed a motion for her to write a letter.

Morell said the board wants to work with the government to find solutions.

The ministry has not immediately responded to the letter nor a request from CBC News for comment.

Bigger class sizes

The province has plans to increase the average class size requirement for secondary schools to 28, up from the current average of 22.

As a result, the TVDSB says the change would reduce its secondary school base teacher funding by $17 million over four years — that figure is one of the few outlined in the letter.

Morell said the board will reveal its detailed financial impact statement after the Grants for Students Needs document is released in the next few weeks.

Despite the multi-million dollar cut, Morell said the board is not anticipating teaching position layoffs and that it will try and balance the scales with a process of attrition.

She said it's the students who will be affected.

"We know that the relationships that our teachers have with students is critical in terms of providing guidance, support, mentorship and significantly impacting student personal development, social and emotional learning," she said.

"Certainly, a greater increase in the student to teacher ratio would have impacts in terms of management of student behaviour in classes and the connections that teachers have as caring adults to students."

Mandatory eLearning classes, a consideration by the province. (Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images)

Morell said bigger class sizes will especially affect small and rural schools.

The letter also outlined that loss of funding in elementary school staffing, especially to the Early Childhood Educators and Full Day Kindergarten programs, will impact programming.

E-learning

The province said mandatory e-learning will be phased in starting in the 2020-21 school year.

The board considers itself a "leader" to implementing school credit e-learning courses. However, Morell said the board understands e-learning isn't for everyone.

"There are certainly many students who respond positively to learning online but often times and in many cases e-learning doesn't meet the needs for all students," she said.

In the letter, she asked the province to seek advice from boards that have learned first-hand about the challenges and opportunities with e-learning.