Some Toronto students must wait until after Thanksgiving to move classes — and teachers are upset - Toronto Star

Annual September reorganization stretches to October at TCDSB, while TDSB's deadline is earlier than last year.

Deborah Karam, president of Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers, says this year’s late school start pushed the Catholic board’s reorganization to Oct. 13.

For some Toronto students, the annual September shuffle will stretch well into October.

Toronto public school students affected by reorganization — the annual provincewide process of balancing elementary class sizes based on enrolment — begin their new classes Monday. But students in the city’s Catholic schools will move over the coming weeks, up until Oct. 13.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board says reorganization “is expected to be completed by early October.” But according to a memo sent to teachers by their union, students won’t be in new classrooms until Oct. 13, after the Thanksgiving long weekend.

“This disruption, we know, is going to cause a lot of stress on students, teachers and parents,” said Deborah Karam, president of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers. “Reorganization is a reality and if we could try to make it earlier we would — this was a unique year ... We started (the academic year) late and a lot of factors brought us to this Oct. 13 deadline.”

The timeline for reorganization differs board to board because procedures are negotiated into each board’s collective agreement. At the TCDSB, the collective agreement requires a series of steps before students can move, including school-level consultations, surplus declarations and giving affected teachers time to find and accept a new position — a process that results in a later shuffle.

In a statement to the Star, the TCDSB said the timeline “reflects the later Sept. 8 start to the school year, an increase of students above our projections and plans, and ensures alignment with our collective agreement and ministry requirements.”

On Friday, it emailed parents to say that “schools will make any necessary changes as enrolment numbers are finalized in the weeks ahead” and principals would reach out if their children are affected.

Annual process seems more disruptive than usual, as staff work to bring class sizes in line with provincial requirements. And there are no trustees.