GUELPH – Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) director Peter Sovran says the board is facing financial pressure and he has pointed to staff absences as a cause.
But union officials say the problem is inadequate funding and overworked, under-resourced educators.
Officials with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 256 called blaming financial pressures on staff absences “a gross misstatement.
“Severe underfunding by the (Doug) Ford government … has led to understaffing, exhaustion and burnout for members,” CUPE officials state.
Upper Grand Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) president Krista Pederson agrees the financial strain “is not, at the core, an absence problem – it’s a funding problem.”
But according to a Ministry of Education spokesperson, the province has increased public education funding by 25 per cent since 2015.
“For the UGDSB that means an increase of $15 million for this school year in core education funding and a 3.5% increase in funding for staff at a time when student enrollments only rose by 1.1%,” said spokesperson Edyta McKay.
The ministry also notes increased staff absenteeism is not exclusive to Ontario.
CUPE Local 256 president Bill Foster said blaming budgetary pressures on staff absences is “extremely disheartening and insulting.”
Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) officials say “Daily, our members experience and recognize the cascading effects of insufficient funding by the Ford government and its impact on supports for students, student achievement and the sustainability and resilience of UGDSB staff.”
Sick days
It feels like educators are being “labelled the biggest cause of the board’s financial pressures” for doing the right thing – staying home when sick, Pederson said.
She added teachers have been asking the union, “Are we not supposed to access our sick days?”
“If we learned anything from the pandemic it’s that you don’t go into work when you are unwell,” she noted.
“Teachers are dedicated professionals. They don’t make the decision to be out of the classroom lightly.”
Taking a sick day involves providing a detailed lesson plan to reduce disruptions to student learning, so sometimes it’s easier to work while sick than to call in, she said.
“It isn’t a case of, ‘Hey, it’s Friday and I don’t feel like working,’” Pederson said.
“If I’m not here on Friday, it’s probably because I’ve struggled through Monday to Thursday fighting off whatever I’m fighting off.”
OSSTF officials note the UGDSB is “obligated to meet its collective agreement commitments regarding staff leaves and absences.”
‘Overwork and underpay’
Union members are reporting more complex health problems post-pandemic, such as respiratory, autoimmune and mental health issues, Pederson said.
Some of those mental health issues are exacerbated by increased student needs and more violence in classrooms, she added.
According to the OSSTF, 75% of its educators report an increase in violent incidents, and 31% have experienced an act of physical violence within their school.
In a statement to the Advertiser, District 18 Upper Grand OSSTF officials said under-funding is leading to increased class sizes and understaffing across the UGDSB, leaving staff with increased workloads and leading to “burnout, physical and mental health wellness challenges and higher rates of absenteeism.”
The OSSTF also notes, “Educators often absorb the gap in resources by working extra hours without compensation” to create lesson plans, manage extracurricular activities and provide one-on-one support to students.
“This additional workload is unsustainable.”
CUPE Local 256 officials say a survey carried out by the Ontario School Board Council of Unions found 75% of its members feel there are not enough staff in their own classification at the UGDSB.
Foster noted there are supposed to be 181 caretakers at the UGDSB, but “we haven’t had that number in over two and a half years,” due to low retention.
In the same survey, “78% of all respondents say they feel stress due to overwork.
“Workers frequently leave the UGDSB because of overwork and underpay,” CUPE officials stated in an email to the Advertiser.
‘Top heavy’
According to Pam Ainscough, who worked at the UGDSB for 33 years as a school-based child youth counsellor and behaviour and mental health interventionist, “staff aren’t getting the support they used to.”
“I think we are a little bit top heavy,” Ainscough said, referring to the UGDSB’s executive staff, their assistants, office administrators and tech supervisors.
Foster agreed, noting the board’s 220 custodial maintenance staff members have “nine supervisors, who all make over $100,000.”
In 2023, the UGDSB paid its 12 executive committee members more than $2 million – or an average salary of $193,192 for the 10 executives who were employed for the full calendar year.
The executive salaries ranged from $129,890 for corporate services manager Amy Villeneuve to $279,505 for director Peter Sovran.
UGDSB officials refused to disclose salaries for 2024, even though the information will be publicly available in the spring when public sector employers are required to report salaries over $100,000.
The board has one fewer executive now than it did in September 2021, due to restructuring, Sovran said.
Funding
As the load carried by teachers continues to increase, the resources and supports available to them are not keeping pace, Pederson said.
CUPE officials say inadequate funding “has affected the quality of student experience at the UGDSB due to lowered student-to-worker ratios, job cuts, long-term understaffing and widespread burnout.”
According to a calculator created by ETFO (at buildingbetterschools.ca), at JD Hogarth Public School in Fergus, when adjusted for inflation, funding has been cut by nearly $1 million when comparing the 2024-25 school year with 2018-19.
According to the same calculator, cuts at Erin District High School over that time, when adjusted for inflation, surpass $800,000 and cuts at Minto-Clifford Public School are close to $700,000.
In each of those examples, that’s $1,562 per student.
“Real per-pupil funding at the UGDSB has been cut by $1,114 in 2024-25. That represents a real cut of $39.9 million for the UGDSB and is the source of board’s budget woes,” CUPE officials state.
McKay asked the Advertiser not to publish figures comparing funding with inflation unless doing so over a 10- to 20-year time period.
“We (the education ministry) really object to that methodology being used by some people just to really criticize the education funding,” she said.
“Because the time horizon matters so much, it’s not accurate and not a good methodology to use.”
Instead, McKay suggested people compare funding with inflation, since the 2002-03 school year, where “Funding is 100 per cent greater, while CPI (consumer price index) increased by 60%.”
Without considering inflation, the ministry notes “Since 2018, core ministry education funding at the UGDSB has risen by 27% while enrolments … increased by 5.9%”
“Our government increased public education funding to historic levels to support student achievement, not to expense trips on public dollars by school board staff,” McKay added.
During the 2023-24 school year, the UGDSB spent almost $77,000 on conference fees and related accommodation and travel expenses, including trips to California and Texas for artificial intelligence (AI)-related conferences.
Mental health supports
According to the OSSTF, “many schools lack the necessary support systems – such as mental health counselors and support staff – to help educators navigate the emotional toll of meeting their students’ needs.
“This void compounds stress levels, especially for those working with students requiring significant behavioural and developmental support.”
The ETFO would “like to see continued supports and strategies to support staff and student mental health and to reduce violence,” Pederson said.
These issues considerably impact staff and students’ mental health, she said, and “anything to get those supports in the classroom is helpful.”
Director Peter Sovran told the Advertiser the UGDSB “added significant supports into schools to support early intervention” for students’ struggles with mental health, including:
- adding almost 10 full-time equivalent child and youth clinicians;
- developing a regional team for a community-based approach to support students, staff and families; and
- doubling the ratio of elementary school social workers by redistributing them.
Sovran said that no cuts were made – “just a redistribution of resources.”
“Often we will re-label things,” he said, which is “misunderstood sometimes as being a cut.”
The OSSTF is calling on the UGDSB to also increase employee wellness programs, “including access to mental health support and professional development opportunities.”
Budget
Until last year, union presidents were part of the UGDSB’s budget process.
“We used to get called in yearly, before the budget was approved – all the union presidents,” Foster said.
“Last one, we didn’t get brought in. We feel like we are getting squeezed out, and not getting proper information from the board.”
Sovran said the UGDSB has dipped into its reserves because revenues are not keeping up with expenses.
For the 2024-25 school year, expenses in the revised budget total over $512 million, and revenues reach about $505.4 million, according to board officials.
But the Ministry of Education claims “the board currently has $23.5 million in surplus funds and has had a cumulative allocation of over $40 million in renewal funding at its disposal since 2022-23.
“It should not be reporting deficits.
“We have and will continue to increase funding in education every single year of our mandate to support students and teachers, but school boards need to act as responsible stewards for public dollars, balance their budgets and create a serious plan to improve teacher absenteeism,” McKay said.
‘Morale is down’
According to the OSSTF, “The compounding effects of cuts to funding our public education system cannot be overstated.
“Clearly, staff wellness issues translate into more absences, and when educators and support workers are unable to be present, the quality of education for students diminishes.”
“I think morale is down,” Ainscough added. “If people aren’t feeling supported, it’s hard to keep chugging along … but if staff are feeling supported, they can take on what’s coming to them.”
Pederson noted, “Teachers, and educators in general, want understanding and support from their employer directly and also from the community.”
Union members would “love to see more public advocacy from the board for better funding” and “to feel that everybody is on the same page that this is a funding problem, not an absence problem,” she said.
‘Prioritize education’
The OSSTF is urging the UGDSB and other boards to “ensure the Ford government prioritizes education funding as a cornerstone of community investment.”
Ministry officials say while it is taking action to combat teacher shortages, school boards are responsible for hiring and managing teachers.
