The Yukon's Education Department is denying some claims that the territory's schools are understaffed, after some school council members expressed concern that teachers in their schools are being shuffled to other schools.

Teachers are being reassigned at a number of Yukon schools this fall, sparking worry among parents who don't want any teaching positions cut in their schools.

But assistant deputy education minister Christie Whitley said Wednesday that transferring teachers is part of a constant staffing process, calculated based on the needs of each school.

Whitley did not have details about student-teacher ratios at specific schools, but she said Yukon schools are better staffed than any other jurisdiction in the country.

"In Canada, the average teacher-student ratio is 1-to-16. In Yukon, the average teacher ratio is 1-to-11," she told CBC News.

"That will vary from school to school because the needs in different schools vary."

Some schools will see a decrease in teachers in September, like Jack Hulland Elementary School in Whitehorse's Porter Creek area. It will lose one teaching position in the fall.

It will be a third year in a row that the school's staff will be reduced, which not good news for school council chairman Paul Nordahl.

"The school council has certainly been looking at the programming that it offers, the distribution of classes," Nordahl said.

"They've also, quite frankly, been looking at the staff-to-student ratios in other elementary schools, and at this point [they] are not prepared to accept any cutbacks."

Meanwhile, Whitehorse Elementary will receive an extra teacher this fall, but school council chairman Keith Halliday said it still won't be enough to keep up with higher enrollment and increasing demand.

"Our ratio of educators to kids will actually go down, even with this additional staff person," he said.

But Whitley said resources alone is not the best way to judge a school.

"We're really well-resourced in the Yukon territory, and as our teachers have told us and a number of people have indicated, more is not always the answer, sometimes different is the answer," she said.

Whitley said she has no problem telling parents that schools in the territory have enough teachers. The big question, she said, is making sure the resources that schools do have are used in the best interests of all students.