Marta Bedard comes from a family of teachers — mom, sister, aunts — and “essentially grew up” in her mother’s elementary classroom in Peel Region.

After leaving a career in public relations to become a teacher herself, Bedard spent years as a supply before finally landing a full-time position at Brampton’s Turner Fenton Secondary School last June.

Now — less than a year later — Bedard could be out of a job.

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“It’s obviously devastating,” said Bedard, who is eight months pregnant and now facing additional worries about her young family’s future. “You work your entire career to get to the point of stability as a teacher, and that’s taken away from you.”

Bedard is among the 176 elementary and 193 high school teachers who have received surplus notices from the Peel District School Board. Another 30 early childhood educators have also been told there is no job for them come September.

It is the first time in several years that Peel has had to send out such notices, and while some will be recalled, the board says teacher layoffs are unavoidable this fall given the provincial government’s boost in class sizes and cuts to funding and local grants.

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I endured Harris-era education cuts in high school. And now my son will go through the same

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Editorial | So much for Ford’s promises on education

Peel school board warns of teacher layoffs this fall

While other boards have also sent out more surplus notices than in the past, Peel is the first to openly question the promise of Premier Doug Ford and Education Minister Lisa Thompson that no teacher will be out of a job — that all losses will be through attrition.

On Wednesday, Thompson said “what we are hearing about coming from Peel Region is a routine process that is happening in every school board across Ontario” as they look at who is retiring, resigning or returning.

“The fact of the matter is, what we are hearing about these recent weeks is a routine, absolute process that is done year in and year out.”

She also reiterated that “there will be no involuntary job loss. And we actually pointed to the fact in the budget that we’re so committed to this we actually are investing $1.6 billion, we’ve tagged that for attrition protection.”

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However, Peel has said the government’s math “doesn’t add up,” given retirements there are lower than usual and it’s unlikely the transitional funding — to ease the job losses — will make up for other cuts.

Boards will learn their annual grants by the end of the month.

When pressed by reporters, Thompson also refused to say if she considers it a job loss if a teacher is laid off from a full-time position but supply teaches.

A spokesperson for Thompson later said “both part-time and full-time positions are very important jobs that are critical to the success of our education system. All teaching positions receive wages and benefits based on agreements with the local school board.”

The province wants to increase class sizes by an average of one student from Grades 4 to 8, and from an average of 22 to 28 in high school over the next four years. It estimates some 3,500 teaching positions will be phased out over that time, though others have calculated the losses will be closer to 10,000.

The Peel board’s Jamie Robertson, superintendent of human resources support services, has told the Star that “I honestly can’t see that there won’t be layoffs. I definitely do believe there will be layoffs.”

The 369 notices to Peel teachers that have been sent out are “surplus to region,” meaning they do not have a placement in a school for this fall. While some will be recalled, on average only about 300 teachers retire in any given year — 200 elementary and 100 secondary — but so far, the numbers are “significantly down,” Robertson said.

Nobody knows for sure exactly what the number of layoffs will be across the province, said Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School Boards Association.

“This is a process we undergo every year — every board has their own timing,” she said. “But it’s looking like, across the province, we are not going to be able” to recall all teachers, unless there is additional funding in the budget.

“We are concerned about that — people keep being told that no jobs will be lost, but we are not confident in that.”

NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles urged Thompson “to be more clear with school boards and with Ontarians” to clear up the current confusion.

“At the end of the day, if teachers are becoming part-time or occasional teachers versus full-time, it still means less adults, less teachers in our classrooms and less one-on-one time for students,” Stiles told reporters.

In the legislature, former Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, the MPP for Don Valley West, asked about the implications of bigger class sizes, and urged Thompson to let boards know grant levels so they can plan.

Wynne was then heckled by Finance Minister Vic Fedeli, who said “we are cleaning up your mess.”

During question period, Ford said “school boards are going to get their budget. They’re going to be hiring back the teachers, because not one single teacher will lose their job. Not one single teacher.”

He noted the province is spending an additional $700 million on education, as revealed in last week’s provincial budget.

Most of the increase is due to a bump in enrolment, as well as the government’s child-care rebate.

Other boards have warned the PC government of high-school classes ballooning to 46 students — to offset smaller classes like special ed, or technology — and the loss of programming as teachers leave. The board in the education minister’s own riding has questioned its ability to even offer the core curriculum with the loss of teaching jobs. Others have noted with fewer teachers comes fewer extracurriculars.

Bedard, who began supply teaching in 2013 and was hired into a permanent position as an English teacher last June, said over the years she has run extracurriculars — even co-writing, producing and directing a school play — volunteered with the breakfast club and helped organized the prom.

At Turner Fenton, she said about 11 teachers received surplus notices on Tuesday.

“Two other teachers in my department were affected,” she said. “We were able to lean on each other for the rest of the day. The staff at our school was just outstanding and able to support us, and let us know they were there for us.”

Going home, however, was tougher. “I had to tell my husband what happened, and having all these unknowns — what happens next, what happens to our family ...

“There were lots of tears,” said Bedard. “We really have no idea what the fallout is going to be when I come back from maternity leave.”