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The Upper Canada District School Board has laid off specialized staff who help students with mental health and behaviour problems as part of a budget-cutting exercise that will eliminate 160 employees.

In what director of education Stephen Sliwa calls an unprecedented situation, about 3.8 per cent of the 4,200 employees at the board will be laid off, Sliwa said Friday.

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Trustees were forced to cut $11.7 million to balance the $364.5-million budget passed earlier this week.

The sprawling board is responsible for about 27,000 students in rural areas outside Ottawa, including Cornwall, Hawkesbury, Alexandria, Brockville, Smiths Falls, Perth, Kemptville, Pakenham and Almonte.

There are multiple reasons for the budget woes: provincial funding cuts; slightly declining enrolment; the board’s attempt to temper the trend of spending more on special education than the province provides for that purpose; and a one-time, $18-million bill after an arbitrator awarded back pay to school bus operators. “It’s a very demanding set of circumstances,” Sliwa said.