Dear Parents,
It is with great sadness to inform you that I will no longer be your child's teacher. Due to a massive re-organization of staffing that has happened within the HWDSB, I have been surplussed to online, remote teaching. In addition to that, our small, perfect class has been closed. Your child will be placed in one of the other three Kindergarten classes.
At Gatestone, a large number of student have switched from in-class to online learning, meaning we have a lot less students in the building. This means that we now have too many teachers in the building for the amount of students we have (although ideally we would get to stay to keep class numbers low). There were a total of 5 teachers surplussed from Gatestone, and I'm one of them... even with 9.2 years of seniority with the board. There is a chance that I will get to come back once the pandemic is over, but we will have to wait and see.
It was a hard day on Wednesday to be called into the office and be told the bad news (lots of tears). I would always tell people how fortunate I was to have such a small, well-behaved class. We were able to socially distance and have fun in a safe learning environment. Now, we will have 3 Kindergarten classes in rooms that are much smaller than mine, with 23 students in each of them. Students in my class will be separated from each other and placed with a new teacher. If that wasn't bad enough, the other 3 Kindergarten teachers (Mrs. Vinall, Mrs. Schmidt, and Mrs. Nighswander) were surplussed too. Teachers from grades 1, 3, and 5 have been moved to teach Kindergarten for the rest of the year. This is hard news to hear, I know. I have spoken with the principal and gave suggestions of where to place my students so that the transition to their new classroom will be less difficult. My last day with your children will be Friday, October 30th. The board has given us Monday, November 2nd to move our stuff, and they will begin their new classes Tuesday. This is going to be a difficult and bumpy change. There are still a lot of kinks, lots of unknowns, and we're receiving new information daily. What I do know, however, is that I adore your children and will miss them dearly. This has hit me really hard.
On Tuesday, October 27th, you will receive a letter that will state who your child's new teacher will be. On Wednesday, I will tell your children the news. It is up to you whether you want to tell them first. I have started packing up the classroom so they know things are changing, but I will explain what's happening on Wednesday.
Please connect with me after school if you have any questions, or send me an e-mail. I will chat with you all very soon <3
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