Toronto’s Catholic school board is considering eliminating more than 100 education assistants to balance the budget by August 2019, which critics claim is a cross to be borne by the board’s most vulnerable learners.

The move is outlined in one of three penny-pinching “roadmaps” stemming from a Deloitte report on the board’s finances that was tabled last month. The firm was retained by the Ministry of Education to assist the TCDSB in coming up with ways to eliminate the board’s accumulated deficit by Aug. 31, 2019.

At $15.3 million, the Toronto Catholic District School Board’s shortfall is the largest of its kind in the province.

Deloitte noted in its review that the TCDSB was saddled with several “significant and long-standing cost pressures,” including the cost of special education.

As a result, one of the report’s key proposals was slashing 260 special education support workers, known as education assistants (EAs), to help balance the books. Board staff instead recommended that trustees trim only half that number by the end of the 2018/19 school year.

Nevertheless, spokesperson John Yan emphasized that the cut is nothing more than a possibility at this point, and no decisions have been made.

“Nothing is etched in stone,” he said. “We are planning a trip and looking at the possible routes to get there.”

Lina Naccarato, president of CUPE Local 1328, which represents TCDSB’s non-teaching education staff, called the report “alarming.”

“I want to stress and emphasize that any further reduction of a system in need of more, not less, will have future impacts on the students we serve and their families,” she said.

The TCDSB is not alone in facing cutbacks to special-education programming and services.

The number of students with special needs has increased, while the funding to support them has lagged behind, according to the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario. The union called on the Liberal government last week to “make good on its 2010 promise to review the education funding formula.”

In 2014-15, the TCDSB spent $22.4 million more on special education than the government had funded. Deloitte’s analysts found the school system had assigned a comparatively higher number of education assistants to its students than other school boards.

Overall, staff recommended that trustees commit to incremental cutbacks over a three-year period, holding off on major downsizing until 2018-2019. Their proposed timeline is also the most expensive option, with a price tag of $28.4 million. The board says the longer timeline, allowing more retirements, will also mitigate actual job losses.

But implementing the multi-year recovery plan still means the board will have to come up with new ways to thrive in thin times.

“Going forward, very difficult and sensitive decisions will need to be made in areas of program delivery and student support in order to realize the projected savings,” the report reads. Analysts offered alternative money makeover solutions for the TCDSB to consider, from “implementing a wellness program to increasing staff productivity” to charging staff, students and visitors for parking.

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Trustees will decide on one of the three timelines at their Feb. 18 board meeting. No matter their choice, Yan emphasized, it does not mean the board has committed to any particular cuts.

After that, staff will begin preparing next year’s budget to be submitted to the ministry by the end of June.