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Protesters say Doug Ford 'has no plan on how to deal with education' (4 photos)

With the announcement on Thursday of 70 teachers in Simcoe County losing their jobs, teachers and supporters took to the street and Barrie/Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin’s office to voice their disdain.

With Thursday's announcement that 70 teachers in Simcoe County would be losing their jobs, teachers and supporters took to the street near Barrie-Innisfil MPP Andrea Khanjin’s office on Friday to voice their disdain.

Approximately 60 people gathered near Khanjin’s Mapleview Drive East constituency office today to protest the recent changes to class sizes by the province's Progressive Conservative government.

The increase to 28 students from 22 forced the Simcoe County District School Board to hand out pink slips to 51 teachers, 70 with many on part-time contracts, stating their jobs had become redundant.

Jen Hare, the teachers’ bargaining union president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) for Simcoe County, told BarrieToday that she and her peers are tired of being lied to by the current provincial government.

“We keep hearing from them that no front-line workers are going to lose their jobs, but 70 people in Simcoe County alone lost their jobs yesterday,” Hare said Friday. “We wanted to be here and to let Andrea (Khanjin) know that this is totally unacceptable.

"I think we’re starting to make the government uncomfortable and if they want to be re-elected in the next provincial election, they will start listing to us and everyone else who is being affected," she added. 

Khanjin was not in her office on Friday. Her staff told BarrieToday the MPP was in Peterborough for a meeting that had been planned for weeks.

Barrie-Innisfil NDP president Pekka Reinio, an elementary school teacher who helped organize Friday afternoon's event, told BarrieToday that the decisions made by Ford since taking office indicate the premier has no idea how to handle the long-term well-being of the province.

“We’re trying to send a message to a government that I think has no plan on how to deal with education. They seem to be improvising throughout this whole process,” Reinio said. “I don’t think we've seen any thought or long-term planning with any of the files since they’ve taken over.

"We’ve watched as they have bungled so many issues and back track and revise their plans; long-term planning isn't the strength of the Ford government," he added. 

Cara Gilewicz had been teaching social science and family studies between Bear Creek and Nottawasaga Pines until yesterday when she found she had lost her job.

“I’ve been working year after year after year as an occasional teacher in our board, always waiting and always lucky enough to get work because I think I’m a good teacher,” Gilewicz said. “The board finally opened up and there’s probably at least 30 to 50 of us for at least six years who have been on the occasional list who, this year, just got permanent contracts and now we’re done.”

The wife and mother of two said it won't be any different in another region of the province. And while thoughts of switching careers has crossed her mind, Gilewicz says there's nothing else she’d rather do.

“I have thought, after grinding it out for years as an occasional teacher, that I could try something else, but I love teaching,” Gilewicz said. “I love the interaction with students, the camaraderie with my fellow staff and sharing what I’m passionate about.

"There is no other option for me, this is what I love to do.”