Dear Families,
As you may have already seen in the media, yesterday evening, publicly funded school boards across Ontario received a memo from the Ministry of Education regarding Budget Planning Information for 2019-2020. This memo makes financial recommendations to school boards to exercise financial prudence in decision making, particularly in anticipation of the conclusion of the Ministry consultations, which is anticipated by March 15, 2019.
I appreciate that these recent media reports may be cause for concern and want to reassure families that the York Region District School Board is prepared to manage the recent announcements by the government. We have been taking some proactive measures that don’t directly affect the classroom, such as carefully reviewing and making decisions on all staffing vacancies as they occur.
We will carefully review the Deputy Minister’s recommendation to impose a hiring freeze with an aim to minimize the effects on classrooms. We are committed to keeping our communities up to date and will continue to provide as much information as possible.
Parents are our closest partners in education and we have a shared focus on doing what is best for students. In addition, we have strong relationships with all our employee groups and are grateful for their hard work and dedication to student learning.
I want to reassure you that student achievement and well-being will continue to be our top priority.
Sincerely,
Louise Sirisko Corrie McBain
Director Chair