A shortage of teachers is causing disruptions for students in the classroom, according to the Prince George District Teachers Association.
In a presentation to the School District 57 board of directors on Tuesday, PGDTA first vice-president Daryl Beauregard said currently the district is seeing an average of 130 teachers away each day.
“That’s leaving a big hole every day,” he said.
Many of those absences are being filled by support teachers – music teachers, teacher librarians and other non-classroom based teachers, he said. The PGDTA estimates that support teachers in the district have spent 3,227 hours filing in for classroom teachers so far this school year, taking them away from their designated roles.
“It has been years now that the union has been bringing this to your attention,” Beauregard said.
While the district has been hiring more qualified and unqualified instructors teaching on call, not all of those substitutes are available on any given day – resulting in support teachers being called to fill in, he said.
Trustee Tim Bennett – who chairs the district’s management and finance committee – said the committee received a staffing update on Jan. 17 from the district’s director of human resources. The district currently employs 170 qualified teachers teaching on call (TTOCs) and 94 unqualified teachers teaching on call (TTUCs). Since September, the district has hired 31 full-time teachers, 12 qualified teachers on call and 71 unqualified teachers on call.
“We are seeing significantly higher than average absences because of COVID-19… because of a whole bunch of things,” Bennett said. “HR shares the same concerns as Mr. Beauregard: making sure those TTOCs and TTUCs are getting out to classrooms.”
A current and ongoing job posting by School District 57 for casual TTUCs says the district is looking for uncertified substitute teachers for both the elementary and secondary level in Prince George, the surrounding rural areas, Mackenzie and the Robson Valley.
“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 job posting says.
District acting superintendent Cindy Heitman said she’s grateful to the district’s staff who have been working hard to ensure schools can stay open for students during the challenging circumstances.
“This new variant (of COVID-19) has definitely provided a challenge - in our district, and across the province,” she said. “Keeping our schools open is really important to the safety, wellbeing and education of our learners.”
