The president of Bluewater local of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation says students will see major course reductions after the Bluewater District School Board issued a notice that about a quarter of teacher positions will have to be cut.
Betty-Jo Raddin said the majority of the reductions in secondary schools in the Bluewater Board are due to provincial funding cuts.
"92 teachers are receiving a letter [Wednesday] that they may be redundant to the system. The actual letter will come on May 30. This is 79.5 full-time equivalent positions in Bluewater," she explained.
Traditionally at this time of year, the Bluewater District School Board works through a staffing needs process. Raddin said about 28 of those full-time losses would have been typical, but the rest are being attributed to funding changes.
"It's going to be very difficult to continue to offer programs. I've already heard from a few of my members in schools where they've been told by principals that it is going to be difficult to run core programming let alone elective programming," she said.
An education information rally is being held on Friday from 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. in front of MPP Lisa Thompson's Constituency Office on Queen St. in Kincardine.
