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th ei fp .c a Th e IF P -H al to n H ill s | T hu rs da y, Ja nu ar y 23 ,2 02 0 | 8 Cell: 416-989-7809 Dave LoDuca QUALITY BATHROOM RENOVATIONS C C T I L EE RAM I Gold 2018 Halton Hills Serving Halton Hills & surrounding areas. ON NOW AT THE BRICK! SAVING YOU MORE For more details go instore or online @thebrick.com. GEORGETOWN LIONS CLUB is seeking GEORGETOWN CITIzEN Of ThE YEaR The Lions Club is accepting applications for the Georgetown Citizen of the Year for the year 2019. Please forward an application or resume to the selection committee before february 22, 2020. Want to help make our community a better place to live? Join the Lions Club! To find out more, email doug1951.p@gmail.com or visit www.georgetownlionsclub.com WE SERVE Send to Georgetown Lions Club P.O. Box 73, Georgetown, ON L7G 4T1 or email to doug1951.p@gmail.com for information or sample application please contact Lion Doug Penrice 905-873-8469 or visit www.Georgetownlionsclub.com Don't let that special volunteer go unrecognized. award dinner to be held March 31, 2020. a community project of the Georgetown Lions Club. More than 150 teachers in the Toronto and Halton boards alone are still job- less, with only a handful likely to end up with work this school year. The situation is un- heard of in the Toronto Dis- trict School Board, where in the past all teachers have always been recalled, Leslie Wolfe, president of the local Ontario Second- ary School Teachers' Fed- eration, told the Star. "This is historic, " she said. "Even in the double cohort year - in 2003 - when (then premier) Mike Har- ris got rid of the Grade 13 or OAC year, which was a loss of 20 per cent of courses, ev- erybody had a job at the end of that process, except for one or two teachers whose only qualification was cosmetology. But basi- cally everybody was em- ployed." And over the past seven years, even as enrolment was declining, all surplus teachers ended up with a classroom, she said. "This is the very first time in the TDSB's history where teachers who were teaching the previous year don't have a contract this year, " and despite enrol- ment being on the upswing, she added. "This is exactly what we predicted." Province wide, negotia- tions with all four teacher unions have hit a wall, and for the first time in more than 20 years they are all engaged in job action rang- ing from work-to-rule to one-day strikes. The already tense situa- tion heated up this week, as teachers in three of those unions held a string of strikes, starting with the Elementary Teachers' Fed- eration of Ontario on Mon- day hitting boards in To- ronto, York and Ottawa. Secondary teachers are in part fighting the govern- ment's plan to boost class sizes from an average of 22 to 25, which will phase out thousands of teaching posi- tions and, as a result, tens of thousands of course op- tions for teens. That, combined with the loss of grants, has led to the layoff situation despite the Ford government's prom- ise that no teacher would voluntarily lose their job. The province even set up a $1.6-billion attrition fund to help boards manage the losses. The high school class average in the Toronto public board is now 23.5. A spokesperson for Edu- cation Minister Stephen Lecce said new education policies have not led to lay- offs. "The Financial Ac- countability Officer con- firmed what we have been saying all along: No teach- er will lose their job as a re- sult of our class size or on- line learning policies, " Al- exandra Adamo said. "Our government's plan is working. We are invest- ing more than ever in stu- dent success to ensure stu- dents benefit from an in- clusive, safe and rewarding academic experience, " she said. Last year, Lecce's prede- cessor Lisa Thompson said "local" situations could lead to job losses, which are not covered by the prov- ince's attrition fund. The province's financial accountability officer did say the attrition fund was more than enough to pre- vent layoffs, but also noted education spending is not keeping up with actual costs. Wolfe said typically, at this time of year, about 70 to NEWS 150 TEACHERS IN HALTON, TORONTO JOBLESS KRISTIN RUSHOWY krushowy@thestar.ca ONTARIO SECONDARY SCHOOL FEDERATION SAYS SITUATION IN TDSB UNHEARD OF See - page 9