Parents with children in The Upper Canada District School Board are asking how they cut their budget by $5.5 million. Director of Education Stephen Sliwa says the savings came from cutting extra funding to arts programs, without consolidating some TR Leger locations, and reducing the number of hours educational assistants work, by about fifteen minutes a day.
Sliwa says that ten employees normally contracted to provide teaching support will not be hired this year. In addition, if the board does not see the retirement numbers expected, there may be more layoffs at the end of August.
Sliwa says the board was forced to make budget cuts as a result of lower funding from the province, along with a decrease in enrollment across the board. He says many former TR Leger students are now being served in the regular school system, leading to lower enrollment in the alternative program.
