Northeastern Ontario schools still figuring out how many extra teachers they need during the pandemic

The first day of classes and the return to schools for the first time since COVID-19hit in March is fast approaching and school boards in northeastern Ontario are still doing some back to school shopping.

They are looking to hire extra teachers and other staff to help execute their pandemic plans. But they aren't sure exactly what they need or how much money they have to spend.

The Rainbow District School Board received $575,000 to hire more teachers, most of which will go to taking on 30 extra elementary teachers to help keep class sizes small in the younger grades.

But director of education Norm Blaseg says they are still figuring out exactly who they need and how much that will cost.

"If you ask any board, they'll say it's never enough. We will be going into our reserves, there's no question about it. To what extent, I'm not sure," he says.

The Sudbury Catholic District School Board is actually happy with it's $900,000 in funding and chair Michael Bellmore thinks it should be enough to hire the extra staff they need.

"I think it is and of course we're appreciative for what the province has provided us," he says.

"But I find this is very fluid and has been fluid from day one, so at this time I think it works. Who knows? We might need to have to go back to the province and say this isn't meeting our needs."

Bellmore says the board has yet to post those teaching jobs, as it is still waiting to see how many students enrol this fall and how many want to take classes online during the pandemic.

The Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board is also still in hiring mode as the first day of school approaches.

But director of education Rose Burton Spohn says most of these extra teachers will handle the online classes for English Catholic students in Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma, which don't get underway until Sept. 14.

She figures they'll need to take on about 25 extra teachers and received provincial and federal funding to cover about five of those salaries.

Burton Spohn says how much they need to take out of their bank account won't be known until the final enrolment numbers are in later this month, which determines how much annual per-student funding they get from Queen's Park.

"So at this point in time what we're focusing on is making sure our students can come back to school safely," she says.

The Algoma District School Board says it is looking to hire between 25 and 30 staff to run online classes. It received some $2.3 million in provincial and federal funding, but expects to have to use $2.5 million from its own reserve funds to cover the bill.

TheConseilScolairePublic du Grand Nord de l'Ontariois hiring 15 extra teachers hired for French public schools in Sudbury and Algoma.

Director of education Marc Gauthiersays most of those salaries will be covered by provincial and federal funding, but he has still withdrawn $1.2 million from the board's reserve funds to cover other pandemic-related costs.

He says in a normal school year there were "little surprises here and there" that threw the budget off track, but"nowadays,everything is a surprise."

"The only thing that worries us is if we have to dip too much into our reserves, are we putting the financial health of the board at stake here?But we'll only have that picture in a year," says Gauthier.

Eric Laberge, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation for the Sudbury area, feels it's a"dangerous slope" for boards to be dipping into their reserve funds and that it's"irresponsible" for the province not to pick up the total tab for its back-to-school plans.

He says on top of extra staffing, he worries about how his members will adjust to teaching classes both online and in person and how flexible officials will be if their best laid plans just don't work out.

"There is a tremendous amount of change,"says Laberge.

"The levels of anxiety right now. .. is off the charts."