TORONTO – The recently announced staffing cuts by the Toronto District School Board are likely to hit schools supporting less-advantaged students particularly hard, critics warn.
“What’s happening right now should raise the alarm bells for every single parent in the province of Ontario, especially for parents that are in school boards right now, where trustees are still in place,” said Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT) President Helen Victoros to CP24/CTV (here).
The Toronto District School Board, as reported yesterday, confirmed on Tuesday that nearly 300 teaching positions (289, to be precise) will be cut across the district for the 2026-27 school year due to a decline of 5,000 students in enrollment.
The ETT, the local branch of the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO), said it only received information about the cuts on March 27. Among the cuts, Victoros explained, are 145 positions in the district’s “Model Schools,” reducing the number of additional staff—teachers supporting students in greater need—to zero.
The TDSB periodically ranks its schools based on external challenges that affect student success. The ranking, known as the Learning Opportunities Index (LOI), is used to identify schools to be included in the Model Schools for Inner Cities program. Additional staff are typically assigned to these model schools to reduce class sizes so that students receive more attention. According to the TDSB website, the index “helps to ensure that children who have access to fewer resources at home and in their neighbourhoods have increased access to available resources in their schools.” These are students with limited family resources, challenging socio-economic conditions, or from higher-risk neighborhoods.
Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) President Michelle Teixeira told CP24 she is “particularly concerned about the elimination of positions dedicated to supporting schools that rank high on the learning opportunities index (LOI),” she said. “Schools ranked high on the LOI support our high needs students and it is truly shameful that these positions have been cut.”
Both Victoros and Teixeira emphasized that the cuts occurred while the Toronto District School Board remains under the control of a provincially appointed supervisor. The TDSB was placed under supervision last June, with Education Minister Paul Calandra citing “financial mismanagement” for this and other boards under supervision. Trustees have been suspended since then. Normally, staffing decisions would be discussed by elected trustees and board staff in meetings open to the public, but this year’s process is taking place away from public scrutiny and without community input.
“We are concerned that in the absence of trustees, decisions around staffing allocation have been made behind closed doors,” Teixeira said.
“It is devastating to see that with absolutely no consultation, no prior discussion, just behind closed doors, a decision was made to cut all the staffing from that program,” Victoros added.
Photo by Victor Salazar from Pixabay
