Half of all high school teachers in the Near North school board — which encompasses Finance Minister Vic Fedeli’s riding — are receiving surplus notices, something their union calls an “unprecedented number of potential layoffs.”

“This is a direct result of the Ford government’s devastating cuts to publicly funded education in the province,” said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.

The notices are being sent to 121 teachers who belong to a union local with 240 members in schools in the North Bay, Nipissing and Parry Sound areas.

It is unclear how many, if any, will actually be laid off, but no such notices have been sent out in recent years to high school teachers in the board.

“These numbers make a mockery of claims by Vic Fedeli, as well as by the premier and other ministers, that no front-line workers will lose their jobs as a result of these cuts,” Bischof said.

The government is boosting average class sizes in high schools from 22 to 28 over the next four years — but because those are averages, some classes will be much larger to make up for smaller, more specialized ones.

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That, combined with a small increase in class sizes from Grades 4 to 8, will lead to at least 3,500 teaching positions being phased out, though some estimates peg that closer to 10,000.

A spokesperson for Fedeli called the union’s announcement “simply more unnecessary fear-mongering.”

“We have taken great care to build a sustainable education plan where no teacher is being fired, despite what our opponents often claim,” said Robert Gibson, noting the government is providing boards with about $1.6 billion for “attrition protection.”

Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Lisa Thompson have also repeatedly said no teacher will lose their job, but that positions won’t be filled after educators retire or resign.

But the school board in Peel Region has said layoffs are expected there despite the government’s claims. And for northern boards, with smaller numbers and a huge geographic area to serve, secondary-school classes tend to average about 18 students, so getting to 28 will be even tougher, said Bischof.

“Class sizes will balloon and hundreds of courses will no longer be available, severely constraining students’ options for planning their pathways to post-secondary learning,” said Bischof.

“The adverse effects of these cuts will be amplified for smaller, rural schools with low enrolment, where program planning is a significant challenge under the best of circumstances.”

Glen Hodgson of OSSTF District 4, who announced the surplus notices in the Near North board in a Facebook Live video on Tuesday, said the union is using numbers from the board. “It’s not fear-mongering,” he said, but rather telling the truth.

“These are real notices going out to real teachers,” added Bischof.

Last week in the legislature, former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne asked about bigger class sizes and other education changes.

Meanwhile, the Star has obtained a memo issued earlier this month by the Thames Valley District School Board in London to its secondary principals that lists a number of options to manage as teacher positions are phased out. These include:

Using video conferencing to “share classes” between schools to boost class sizes and “create efficiencies.”

Offering academic-level French only, or, alternatively, simply having “open” French credits for all students.

Merging teens in locally developed courses — credits created specifically for struggling students — into applied courses, which provide more hands-on learning than academic courses.

Putting students on wait-lists for credits if they are taking a “victory lap” after Grade 12 to improve their grades, or if they’ve already passed the course. “Those students should get last priority seats available within the class size maximum,” the memo says.

The board later rescinded the memo, saying the list was not “best practices” but rather considerations based on consultations with staff as well as other boards.

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Kayla Iafelice, Thompson’s spokesperson, said “it is typical for school boards to issue surplus notices while they work through their budget process. Surplus notices are decisions made at the local school board level. We have been clear we are committed to releasing the (grants)by the end of the month which will assist boards in their budget preparations.”

Until that time, boards will not be finalizing staffing levels for the next school year.

However, Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, said she expects such measures to be put in place across the province.

“That is part of the consideration — schools are going to do things like college and university, Grade 11 and 12 English together” or more core French classes combining Grades 9, 10 and 11, she said.

“It’s not impossible, but it’s not great,” she said. “It’s not an ideal way of teaching.”

Bischof said the options outlined by Thames Valley “will lead to a significant decline in the support for those students who may need the most assistance, and our expectation of decreased student success and higher dropout rates.”

He called video-conferencing between schools an “appallingly second-rate approach to education.”

On Tuesday, the OSSTF union local for the Near North District School Board announced that 121 of 240 teachers were receiving “redundancy notices” representing schools from Parry Sound, South River, North Bay, Mattawa to Sturgeon Falls.

Issuing surplus notices is typical at this time of year — however the sheer number of them this year is anything but.

Bischof said Fideli, who represents the riding of Nipissing, which the board in part encompasses, “of all people (as minister of finance) ... should understand that investing in education drives great returns for local economies, and that cutting education funding puts economic progress at risk.”

Bob Brush, chair of the Ontario North East district school board — covering a huge swath around the Timmins and Timiskaming area — said his board has some time before it sends out surplus notices and is waiting until it learns government grant levels, expected before the end of the month.

Like other boards, it could move teachers working as math or literacy expert coaches back into classrooms, and “obviously we are going to have reductions, but we just don’t know the severity of it.”

The board is already dealing with a $4 million cut from previous announcements by the province, which he called “another significant hit as well.”

Right now, with some high school populations under 50 students, staffing is based on an 18:1 ratio, and getting to 28 “is going to be very serious.”

“We’re not sure how it’s going to work,” said Brush, a former secondary school principal. “Attrition for me, in my experience doesn’t work well in a high school setting. We have specialists. If the physics teachers retires, who is going to teach physics? You can’t just put Joe Smith in.”

One outlier is the Niagara District board, which is not sending out any surplus notices either for elementary or secondary, largely because of increased, significant enrolment growth.

Meanwhile, in Halton, more than 150 surplus letters went out to high school teachers — something that hasn’t happened for the past three years.