More than 150 teachers in the Toronto and Halton boards alone are still jobless, with only a handful likely to end up with work this school year.

The situation is unheard of in the Toronto District School Board, where in the past all teachers have always been recalled, Leslie Wolfe, president of the local Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, told the Star.

“This is historic,” she said. “Even in the double cohort year — in 2003 — when (then premier) Mike Harris got rid of the Grade 13 or OAC year, which was a loss of 20 per cent of courses, everybody had a job at the end of that process, except for one or two teachers whose only qualification was cosmetology. But basically everybody was employed.”

And over the past seven years, even as enrolment was declining, all surplus teachers ended up with a classroom, she said.

“This is the very first time in the TDSB’s history where teachers who were teaching the previous year don’t have a contract this year,” and despite enrolment being on the upswing, she added.

“This is exactly what we predicted.”

Province-wide, negotiations with all four teacher unions have hit a wall, and for the first time in more than 20 years they are all engaged in job action ranging from work-to-rule to one-day strikes.

The already tense situation is set to heat up this week, as teachers in three of those unions gear up to engage in a string of strikes, starting with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario on Monday hitting boards in Toronto, York and Ottawa.

On Tuesday, the elementary teachers are targeting another handful of boards — as they will all week — and the public high school teachers are also hitting the picket lines in 13 boards. All Catholic teachers across the province are walking off the job that day, too.

Secondary teachers are in part fighting the government’s plan to boost class sizes from an average of 22 to 25, which will phase out thousands of teaching positions and, as a result, tens of thousands of course options for teens.

That, combined with the loss of grants, has led to the layoff situation despite the Ford government’s promise that no teacher would voluntarily lose their job. The province even set up a $1.6 billion attrition fund to help boards manage the losses.

The high school class average in the Toronto public board is now 23.5.

A spokesperson for Education Minister Stephen Lecce said new education policies have not led to layoffs.

“The Financial Accountability Officer confirmed what we have been saying all along: no teacher will lose their job as a result of our class size or online learning policies,” said Alexandra Adamo.

“Our government’s plan is working. We are investing more than ever in student success to ensure students benefit from an inclusive, safe, and rewarding academic experience,” she said.

Last year, Lecce’s predecessor Lisa Thompson said “local” situations could lead to job losses, which are not covered by the province’s attrition fund.

The province’s financial accountability officer did say the attrition fund was more than enough to prevent layoffs, but also noted education spending is not keeping up with actual costs.

Wolfe said typically, at this time of year, about 70 to 80 positions need to be filled — to help schools manage too-large classes or other unexpected pressures. This year, there is funding for just 28.5 spots.

And with 125 teachers not yet placed, “we have 125 sitting partially or fully on that recall list, with only 28.5 positions which may or may not be allocated,” Wolfe said.

Even if all 28.5 are filled, “there are still over 90 people who are either fully without a (full-time) position or, at best, in halftime positions.”

Some teachers who worked full-time last year are already working as supply teachers.

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For each teacher lost, that is six classes not available to students, Wolfe added.

“We could have 580 fewer classes, or 600 fewer classes” depending on final numbers, she said.

In the Halton District School Board, 26 teachers remain on the surplus list, with another 31 forced to scale back to part-time positions, said Cindy Gage, president of District 20 of the secondary teachers’ union.

Given the loss of teaching positions and now larger classes, she said “stacked classes” have become more common — especially in tech. (Stacked classes are those where multiple grades are combined into one.)

“Two schools cancelled Writer’s Craft, which is an extremely popular Grade 12 English course,” Gage also said. “It always runs — and they both had over 20 students in them, which in any other year would have run.”

Help for struggling students has also been hit, she said. “In one school, the math support at lunch was cancelled because they didn’t have enough teachers to do all of the supervisions.”

Daryl Jerome, who heads District 21 in the Hamilton-Wentworth public board, said all teachers there have ended up with jobs, though some have gone from full-time positions to long-term supply work, impacting their hours and benefits.

He said the board is down 100 permanent teaching positions in high schools.

“At the end of the day, the board has been very creative about keeping the number of course options open as possible,” he said.

It cut the number of teachers working as consultants, moving those educators back into the classroom. While that protected classroom jobs, it has meant fewer professional supports and development for educators, he said.

The board has also resorted to more stacked classes — in some cases, three or four grades combined in one course such as physical education, Jerome added.

Some Northern boards have had to combine different grades and subject areas into a class “and they’ve had a lot of issues with stacking bizarre combinations” to keep courses going because of their lower enrolments, Jerome also said.

In a larger urban board like Hamilton, there is flexibility to “try to be creative with the money they have.”

“They’ve been able to staunch the bleeding a lot this year,” he added. “But they won’t be able to do that much more going forward.”

Harvey Bischof, president of the provincial Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said, “It’s clear from the fact that there are still laid-off education workers and teachers in places all across this province that the Ford education agenda isn’t good for anyone.”

The Near North board — which took the unusual step of issuing layoff notices to half of its high school teachers when funding was uncertain — still has about 12 to 15 without jobs.

“We are in the process of doing some hiring for semester two since we have had some leaves and retirements, so that number will hopefully change in the next few weeks,” said District 4 union President Glen Hodgson.