Teachers facing layoffs in Nipissing District are a step closer to knowing how many of them may be recalled in time to teach again in September.
Rob Hammond, who represents the elementary teachers under the Near North District School Board says school boards across Ontario now have their Technical Papers.
Those Technical Papers detail where boards can allocate the funding they receive from the Ministry of Education.
Because the documents were nearly two months late and the board had no idea where its funding would be allocated, it had to issue layoff notices under terms of the collective agreement to the elementary and high school teachers.
Earlier this month 114 secondary teachers were given redundancy notices and 62 elementary teachers got their pink slips.
Hammond says at this point because the Technical Papers were only delivered to school boards on Friday, it’s too early to know if any layoff notices can be rescinded.
He says the boards will be doing their own work in this department.
“We’re hoping with the Technical Papers some of the notices of layoffs will be rescinded,” he said.
“But we have no way of understanding how many that will impact.”
Hammond hopes the picture becomes clearer in the coming weeks on exactly how many teachers will be recalled.
However, he points out that even with teachers who are recalled, they may have to teach in other schools across the district, because there’s no guarantee where they end up once a layoff is rescinded.
MyWestNipissingNow.com reached out to the Near North board for a comment on how long it will take to go through the Technical Papers and allocate funding so the affected teachers know where they stand.
As yet, the board has not responded.