Cape Breton school board cutting 140 jobs

The Cape Breton-Victoria Regional School Board is cutting 140 positions next year to cope with a $5.1-million shortfall.

Board superintendent Ambrose White said an expected decline in student enrolment of about 700 will account for the loss of 22teaching positions.

Once retirements are taken into account, as many as15 permanent teachers could belaid off.

"There will be some impact, but hopefully minimum," said White. "To meet budget, we must lay off 15 teachers. We maintain a few as a buffer for September for any additions that may be needed."

The 15 permanent positions will be cut from the bottomof the seniority list.

The other job losses will be wide-ranging.Fourteen positions willbe cut among grounds, bus and lunchroom staff. There will be nine fewer cleaning positions and two fewer janitors. A library technician, a property services supervisor, one clerical position and a head bus driver are also being eliminated.

White said many of those cuts would be through attrition, but he didn't know the exact number.

Layoffs of permanent teachersalso mean substitute teachers could seefewerhours in the classroom. The board hopes it canrecall some laid-off teachers in September, opening up substituting opportunities for others.

White said the board tried to cut expenses everywhere first before it started eliminating jobs.

"At the end of the day 85 per cent of our budget is salaries and benefits so we had to go there," he said. "It is set in stone at this point if there are increased retirements and other things happen, it may change, but this is the budget we were dealt with, and we had to make those decisions."

The boardis expecting 42 teachers to retire at the end of the year, as things stands now.