Senior staff with the Thames Valley District School Board met Monday afternoon to talk about the potential impact of cuts to education program grants across the board.
A statement released after the meeting reads in part, "The full impact of this reduction in funding is yet to be understood. We are waiting to understand the focus of this government...We have been through this before and will support our students and staff through the uncertainty."
Notices from the Ontario government came out late Friday, after many senior staff had left for the weekend, that $25 million has been slashed from the Education Program - Other fund, impacting school boards across the province.
The London District Catholic School Board is also scrambling to find out what the cuts mean, and which of its programs will be affected.
LCDSB Chair John Jevnikar says, "We all realize that the provincial government is in a financial hole that they need to adjust, but the way they adjusted seems to be more adversarial than collaborative. Announcing it on a Friday before a weekend, announcing it before the consultation with school boards was done."
Cuts for the Catholic board total $1.3 million, with six programs expected to be affected, including:community use, mental health workers, innovation in learning, fundamental math, safe accepting and health schools and experiential learning.
Many programs are already up and running for the year and the announcement comes just one week before schools close for the Christmas break.
