Ontario teens worry their post-secondary plans may be in “jeopardy” given cutbacks to classes and course options in high school under changes by the Ford government.

Responding to a slew of complaints, the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, which advocates on behalf of the province’s 2 million public school students, issued a statement Wednesday saying course selection has been made “more challenging” as the average high school class size rose this fall, and hundreds of teaching positions have been lost.

“As course selections become more difficult, it may put students’ post-secondary paths in jeopardy due to admission requirements,” said president Sally Meseret, who is in Grade 12. “(OSTA) will continue to work with the Ministry of Education to create more positive change and achieve better outcome for students.”

Although Education Minister Stephen Lecce recently said the average Ontario high school class size now sits at 22.5, some boards are further along in reaching the Ford government’s four-year goal of 28 — such as the York Region District School Board at 24.7, or the Halton District School Board at 24.85.

Even that change was enough to trigger timetable troubles for teens, says the trustee association.

An education ministry spokesperson said students don’t need to worry about getting the “critical courses” they need for college or university because boards will — and have — come up with creative ways to ensure they are offered.

Credits that are prerequisites for a number of university programs, such as Grade 12 physics, are typically available, the spokesperson said, and schools may jointly offer others that may not get the numbers needed, such as Grade 12 chemistry, by combining students to get enough for a full class .

Schools can and do opt to offer some courses every other year, combine multiple grades in a subject area or offer virtual and online learning to boost credit options, the spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Lecce said “every high school in Ontario is equipped to support students in meeting their graduation requirements.

“I am confident that school boards are meeting their obligation to provide those courses,” said Alexandra Adamo.

“We count on high schools to be sensitive to their students’ needs and to offer their students choices that maximize their opportunities.”

Despite the larger class size plan, the Ford government has promised no teacher will lose their job because of it as those who retire or resign won’t be replaced. It also created a $1.6 billion fund to help boards avoid layoffs.

Boards and teachers report larger classes in many cases, with Catholic teacher Chris Cowley tweeting a photo of 39 desks crammed into a room at St. John’s College School in Brantford for an advanced functions class.

Delicia Saldanha, a Grade 12 student at Toronto’s Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, says some classrooms are so full “there’s barely any space to walk.”

“In one district we have over 100 classes with 35 or more students, and elsewhere we have classes that have ballooned to more than 40 students,” said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.

“One teacher has reported so many desks in a classroom that there is no room to set up essential teaching tools like a laptop and projector. Many courses are simply not running, and many students’ timetables are incomplete ... To put it bluntly, it’s a mess.”

While there is always tumult at the start of the school year as students make last-minute changes to their schedules, this year boards have little flexibility to add extra course sections, say critics.

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NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles said students are telling her they can’t get into classes like calculus or others that are no longer available at their school, or there are long wait-lists and “they are really worried about what this means going forward.”

“What we are seeing now is more significant and concerns that classes are getting larger and there’s no opportunity to split them into (smaller) classes because there simply aren’t the teachers.”

Tom Laracy, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association local in the Brant Haldimand Norfolk Catholic District School Board, said 11 of his members have been declared surplus — which equals a loss of 66 classes and course sections across three high schools.

In the past, he said, no classes have been larger than 30 students. But this fall, 1 per cent of classes have more than 35 students, and 15 per cent have 30 to 35.

In the Bluewater District School Board, the student-teacher ratio has gone up to an average of 24.8 in its high schools, says chair Jan Johnstone.

“We don’t have enough caring adults in secondary schools” given all the challenges teenagers face, she said, and programming has also been impacted with the loss of teachers.

At the Upper Canada District School Board, some 160 positions were cut, including 42 teachers, said chair John McAllister. He said secondary class sizes there remain the same at an average of 21.

“There may be some fewer course offerings, but the fact remains that we are still providing students with the courses that they need to graduate” — but not always the courses they want, he said.

In the Halton District School Board, Cindy Gage heads the local Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. She said a number of her members have been left without jobs, and others given fewer hours.

With fewer teachers, extra math help at lunchtime will be axed because they are needed for other duties like cafeteria supervision, she said.

“Students are going to struggle,” she said.

Halton chair Andrea Grebenc said “it’s early days” and the board should have a better sense of how things are shaping up sometime next week.

“My own daughter, in Grade 11 math, has 35 kids in her class and she’s concerned … she’s very anxious,” said Grebenc. “She’s in an older school, and classrooms are a bit larger, and she says they’re stuffed in there. I can’t even imagine some of our newer schools, that were built to a much smaller benchmark, how they’re doing.”

The Peel District School Board says this year’s start-up is no different than usual. Spokesperson Carla Pereira said some high school students will have holes or alternate courses in their schedules as schools work through reorganization this month.

Taylor Dallin, who is in Grade 12 at Toronto’s Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts, said “students don’t have the flexibility they have had access to in the past in terms of switching courses because many are full” or cancelled. Some students have even been placed in courses they didn’t sign up for.

“This can potentially have dire consequences, because these education changes have the power to heavily impact students’ futures,” said Dallin, a Toronto Catholic District School Board student trustee.