In response to the Burnaby Teachers' Association crying foul over the school district's decision to lay off 75 teachers, the Burnaby school district says layoffs are an annual occurrence
In an article appearing in the May 3 Burnaby NOW, James Sanyshyn said he was upset that the budget passed in April didn't mention any layoffs, even though layoff notices were sent out the very next day.
"To say there were no layoffs is disingenuous," he said in an earlier interview.
But the district says these layoffs happen each year and are necessary.
"Every year we typically have a fairly large number of layoffs because that's the way the system works," said Greg Frank, secretary-treasurer of the Burnaby school district.
According to Frank, the district lays off a number of teachers at the end of each school year, depending on contractual obligations and other factors, including returning teachers.
"In many cases we've got a whole number of teachers that might be off on leave, that might be coming back from leave," he said.
Throughout the summer, the district goes through a process of rehiring that takes into consideration the number of returning teachers, the number of teachers retiring, enrollment across the district and changes in student demographics, Frank said.
"Then, over the coming months and through the summer and into early September many of those staff are hired back once we really know who is going to be off for different leaves of absences, where our students are showing up at what schools and at what subject levels," he said.
The district has projected a decline in student enrolment of 341, which is one of the reasons this year's number of teacher layoffs was so high, Frank said.
"It's a little higher than normal," he said. "And then part of that may also be wrapped up in that this year we had some temporary funding for what is called learning improvement funds, which has allowed us to hire more teachers on a temporary basis."
According to the district's preliminary operating budget, the district is expecting to maintain the $2.4 million learning improvement funding in the 2013/14 school year. If that's the case, Frank said many of the teachers laid off could be rehired come September, but again it would be on a temporary basis.
"The vast majority (of teachers) usually are (rehired), on an average basis, and people often don't get necessarily the assignments that they would prefer to have," he said.
This means that some of the 75 teachers who were laid off last week could be could be rehired in a lesser capacity next September.
"I honestly don't know how many of these people will be rehired but I do know the vast majority would be," he said.
