How desperate has the teacher shortage become in Prince George school district?
With jobs for certified teachers going unfilled, School District 57 has turned to its Facebook site to try to get the word out that it will accept applications from uncertified candidates to fill positions in area schools.
The ad reads: "School District No. 57 (Prince George) is seeking enthusiastic individuals to work as Uncertified Teachers Teaching on Call in the Prince George area, which includes rural area schools at Nukko Lake, Giscome, Hixon, and Beaverly. Applicants will preferably have some post-secondary education in a related field, along with a variety of recent experiences working with either children or teens."
The ad was posted Feb. 11 and SD 57 chair Tim Bennett says it is not new to the district. In consultation with the Prince George District Teachers Association, uncertified teachers have worked in mostly rural schools for several years.
"Right now it has moved to Prince George because we have to grow our TTOC list," said Bennett. "These positions are sometimes (filled by) teacher candidates who are waiting for their certifications to come in. Sometimes they are more specialized individuals who could come in and teach our classes and sometimes they are people who have their bachelors or masters degree who have chosen not to pursue education at one point but have an abundance of experience with kids and go through our screening and training to go on the TTOC list."
He said under no circumstances would an unqualified candidate with no prior experience working with kids be put in charge of a classroom. In some cases, a non-enrolling teacher (not attached to that particular class or division) or an administrator has been brought in as a substitute.
At the January public meeting, Daryl Beauregard, the PGTDA first vice-president, told the school board there are 13 full-time unfilled teaching positions, with 16 additional vacancies anticipated before the end of the school year. Three positions are available for French immersion teachers, nine are at elementary schools and four are at secondary schools. Before June, an additional three secondary school teachers will be needed as well as two more in French immersion teachers and five non-enrolling support teacher jobs.
The local shortage has been exacerbated by the fact 40 teachers have given up their jobs temporarily to go on maternity leave.
"We're facing a bit of crunch right now," said Bennett.
"It's partly due to some good news, where we're growing as a district, and we're seeing large numbers of teachers starting or growing their families. But it's created more vacancies we need to fill within the district, especially with our TTOCs, or what most people would know as substitute teachers.
"We want to ensure that if teachers are ill that they are at home recovering and can take the leave they collectively bargained. In order to do that, we want to make sure we have enough substitutes in classrooms."
Bennett said SD 57 has been proactive in trying to attract teachers to region, which includes schools in Valemount, McBride and Mackenzie. The district has hired a full-time recruitment and retention officer, it regularly attends job fairs across the country and it has produced new material to showcase the area.
"We are doing better than some districts in terms of recruiting teachers but we still have a challenge getting them to our district," said Bennett.
Tuesday's provincial budget included $553 million set aside in a contingency fund to address outstanding collective agreements. That's good news for teachers, who have been without a contract since June 30, 2019. The province will continue to support the classroom enhancement fund which provides targeted funding for Indigenous students and children and youth under the province's care.
"There are definitely things we're happy about, one being the commitment to fully fund enrollment and growth," said Bennett. "As a growing district we know we have more kids coming into the district and that commitment to fund the growth is welcome, as is the commitment to fully fund collective agreements."
Bennett said there was nothing in the budget which guarantees exempt staff (principals, vice-principals, and non-unionized school staff) would be included in any salary increases given to teachers in collective agreements and he would like to see the government address that in negotiations.
Bennett expects more budget details to be announced by the government by March 15. He's hopeful there will be capital funding made available to SD 57 to proceed with an expansion/refurbishment project planned for D.P. Todd Secondary School. The project would replace portable classrooms now in use at the school with a permanent structure and existing school space would be redeveloped to modernize the school.
In September, students and teachers will move into the new Kelly Road Secondary School being built on property adjacent to the current school building. The $44.3 million project will give Kelly Road a 900-student capacity.
B.C. Teachers Federation president Teri Mooring welcomed the additional funding earmarked for collective bargaining but said the budget does not address teacher salaries, which the BCTF says are the second-lowest in the country.
“B.C. won’t be able to attract new teachers to our province if we don’t make our salaries more competitive," said Mooring, in a BCTF release. "The presence of so many untrained people working with students in classrooms shows how deep the teacher shortage has become. It needs to be addressed immediately. We have lots of issues with specialist teachers being pulled into classrooms, those supports are not there for special needs students.
"It’s a significant problem. We think that all students regardless of where they live in this province should be taught by a certified teacher.”
The teachers contract which expired last year, retroactive to July 1, 2013, was ratified after a five-week provincewide strike which started in June 2014 and ended the following September – the longest teachers’ strike in B.C. history. In November, teachers rejected mediator David Schaub’s recommendation of a three-year contract which would increases wages two per cent annually.
Negotiations are expected to resume early next month in Vancouver.
“We’re in mediation," said Mooring, "and the good news is we have a date for March. And so while we’re in mediation, we are not planning any job action. We’re certainly hopeful that we get a deal and we’ll be working as hard as we can to get that deal.”
