{"id":23725,"date":"2019-05-09T16:47:26","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23725"},"modified":"2019-05-09T16:47:34","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:47:34","slug":"provincial-changes-will-have-significant-impact-on-students-says-school-board","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/provincial-changes-will-have-significant-impact-on-students-says-school-board\/","title":{"rendered":"Provincial changes will have \u201csignificant impact\u201d on students, says School Board"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following sweeping\nchanges proposed to the Province\u2019s education system, the York Region District\nSchool Board has sent the Ministry of Education a \u201cletter of concern\u201d outlining\nsignificant \u2013 often negative \u2013 impacts they see coming down the pipe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a letter sent to\nEducation Minister Lisa Thompson dated Thursday, Corrie McBain, Chair of the\nYork Region District School Board, said the Board\u2019s \u201cpreliminary analysis\u201d on\nhow proposed changes will impact students, their families and school\ncommunities, has resulted in \u201csome concerns that have significant implications\nfor our students.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building on the\nBoard\u2019s earlier estimate that an increase in class sizes could result in an\nestimated elimination of 300 teaching positions in YRDSB secondary schools, Ms.\nMcBain said this change will have a direct impact on students and their ability\nto take courses required \u201cfor their appropriate pathway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnder our current\nmodel to serve students, we already have college and university level courses\nat a maximum of 30 students,\u201d she said. \u201cMoving forward, under the 28:1\naverage, we will have to increase many courses to over 30 students per class in\norder to maintain sustainable and safe environments in other classes, such as\ntechnology, auto mechanic shop, etc. For example, academic courses will rise to\n36, college and university courses to 36, open courses to 32, physical\neducation to 30, science to 32.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe average\nsecondary school in York Region District School Board has an enrolment of 1,400\nstudents. Timetabling for students and staff allocation is currently underway,\nand under the 28:1 average ratio, as an example in a school this size, a full\n625 students, or 45 per cent, will not have a full timetable to complete their\nsecondary school education. Even more alarming, 78, or six per cent, of\nstudents will have no timetable. Under our previous class size model, this\nschool offered a total of 482 classes across all grades, under the 28:1 average\n379 classes will be offered, a loss of 103 classes. This means losing 17\nteaching positions in one school alone. It is important to note that the\ncocurricular activities, coaching opportunities, and the caring relationships\nwith students formed by these 17 teachers will be lost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Impacts, she said,\nwill be felt greater in smaller schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. McBain sites an\nexample of a secondary school with 600 students. In this scenario, there would\nonly be one music class, eight applied courses, and two locally-developed\ncourses available for the entire school. Electives will also be \u201cextremely\nlimited\u201d and, as teachers retire, the inability to replace them will result in\na loss of specialized courses, particularly in the fields of STEM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGiven how this\naffects larger schools, we can no longer use staffing from larger schools to\naccommodate smaller schools,\u201d said Ms. McBain. \u201cThis will significantly affect\nour students, their access to both mandatory and elective credits and,\npotentially their future. The proposed changes to secondary schools will\ndisadvantage students looking to enter skilled trades the most.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When secondary\nschool students left classes in a Province-wide walkout on April 4, many of the\nteens said they were opposed to changes that would require them to take one\nhigh school credit online per year, citing different learning styles and the\ninability to ask questions of teachers in real time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This too was a\nconcern outlined by the Board, which said this will translate into students\ncompleting 13.3 per cent of their high school education online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis poses\nchallenges logistically and may have a detrimental effect on graduation rates\nin York Region and across the Province,\u201d said McBain. \u201cWe are aware of some\nalarming statistics related to e-learning courses that raise concern for future\nmandatory e-learning. Last year, our Board saw an overall dropout rate of 25\nper cent in our day school e-learning program. This is in sharp contrast to our\ndropout rate for in-class courses of six per cent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition, rural\nareas in our Board do not have access to widespread high speed bandwidth, and some\nstudents do not have access to technology at home to complete the courses.\nGiven that staffing levels in secondary schools are being reduced, it will be\ndifficult to provide appropriate supports to students who may require help or\naccess. As with class sizes, this proposal will have a more detrimental effect\nin smaller schools and rural area.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ms. McBain\u2019s letter\nserved as a refresher to a March 6 letter outlining concerns to funding changes\nto the Ontario Autism Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTo date, we have\nnot received a response,\u201d she said. \u201cWhile we recognize that the Minister of\nChildren, Community & Social Services has delayed the implementation of the\nchanges, some of our concerns have not yet been addressed. Our staff members\nhave been working to determine how many students will be increasing their time\nat school and how many will be enrolling at school for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince the original\nannouncement, over 30 families have indicated they have a child who has never\nbeen to school and will now be attending as a result of the funding changes.\nAlmost every one of these students has been described as having high needs\nrelated to their diagnosis of Autism. In addition, approximately 50 families\nhave indicated their child will be increasing to full-time attendance at\nschool. We have not yet heard back from the families of over 300 children\ncurrently receiving services from other agencies. The need to hire staff\nmembers to support these students as they arrive will result in an unknown\nadditional financial pressure and a potential in-year deficit for our Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs mentioned in our March 6 letter, we\nappreciate the need to balance a high-quality public education system with\nfinancial sustainability. We ask that you reconsider some of the policies most\ndetrimental to students and consult directly with school boards who can assist\nyou in meeting our mutual goals of supporting students\u2019 achievement and\nwellbeing needs.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following sweeping changes proposed to the Province\u2019s education system, the York Region District School Board has sent the Ministry of Education a \u201cletter of concern\u201d outlining significant \u2013 often negative \u2013 impacts they see coming down the pipe. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6aF","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 14:19:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}