What to know
- The Toronto District School Board projects cutting 289 teaching positions for the 2026–27 school year, citing declining enrolment of nearly 5,000 students.
- The Elementary Teachers of Toronto warns the actual number of cuts could exceed 600, including significant losses in Model Schools, ESL programs, and teacher librarians.
- Trustees and parents express concern that the cuts will disproportionately affect high-needs schools, increase class sizes, and reduce essential student supports.
- Questions remain about transparency, funding, and the province’s role, with critics saying the process lacks public accountability.
As the Toronto District School Board eyes cuts to nearly 300 teaching positions this fall, unions warn the real number could be significantly higher.
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) says approximately 289 teaching positions could be reduced in the 2026–27 school year. In a statement to Now Toronto, the board said the projected decrease is largely due to declining enrolment, with about 5,000 fewer students expected.
“When compared to the current number of elementary and secondary teachers in the TDSB, we anticipate approximately 289 fewer teaching positions. It’s important to note that staffing continues to fluctuate right up until the new school year, so these numbers are not yet final,” the board said.
However, the Elementary Teachers of Toronto (ETT), which represents more than 11,000 public elementary teachers, says the actual number of cuts could exceed that figure by hundreds.
According to the union, the proposed reductions include:
- 483.5 elementary teaching positions
- Elimination of 145 elementary teachers in Model Schools
- 72 ESL teachers
- 9 teacher librarians
ETT told Now Toronto it received this information on March 27 through the elementary staffing allocations chart provided by the TDSB.
Now Toronto reached out to the TDSB to clarify the discrepancy but did not receive a response in time for publication.
The publication also contacted the Ministry of Education, which placed the board under provincial supervision last year, but did not receive a response before deadline.
ETT President Helen Victoros condemned the proposed cuts in a statement.
“This is a dismantling of essential support that students rely on every day,” she said. “The scale of these cuts will be felt in every classroom and in every community across Toronto.”
Victoros added that the cuts are part of a broader pattern of provincial underfunding and raised concerns about transparency.
“Information like the overall staffing allocations, the TDSB Financial Facts Report, the updated Learning Opportunity Index report that would normally be public have been delayed, buried, or are simply non-existent this year,” said Victoros. “These decisions are being made in secrecy, driven by Minister Calandra and the provincially appointed Supervisor Gupta, who has no experience in public education.”
Trustee speaks out
Ward 9 TDSB trustee and mother of two students, Alexis Dawson, says she is skeptical of the board’s lower estimate without more data.
Regardless of the final number, she says students will be significantly impacted, particularly those in Model Schools, a program designed to support children in underserved communities.
“Those are the top 150 schools with the highest needs in the city. And so that programme appears to have been entirely cut. It looks like they are applying resources equally across schools and not equitably,” she said in an interview with Now Toronto.
She added that the cuts will likely increase class sizes, especially after provincially appointed supervisor Rohit Gupta recently removed the class size cap for Grades 4 to 8 that trustees had approved last year.
“There’s great concern that there will be more children in a class, that there will be more triple-split classes, so that’s when you have three grades in a class, and that there will be less resources being brought into the classroom in the form of support roles,” she said.
With the board under provincial supervision, Dawson says there is also less transparency around the full scope of staffing changes, as trustees are no longer involved in the budget consultation process.
“We’ve got the information on teacher cuts, but we don’t know about the other unionised staff, so the PSSP workers, child and youth workers, safety monitors, psychologists, social workers. We don’t know about the cuts with those categories, where in the past we would have received a fulsome report covering all staff categories,” she said.
Dawson, alongside the ETT, is urging both the TDSB and the province to reverse the cuts.
“Teachers are already feeling the burnout. They’re already under-resourced,” she said. “The government is coming out with all of these announcements that make it look like they’re putting resources back into the classroom, but they actually aren’t. They’re cutting teachers, and they’re cutting the support staff who support those teachers.”
