Eight new teachers hired so far: Petrucci
Early attendance at hiring fairs and training advocacy proving beneficial
Early attendance at hiring fairs across the country has proved beneficial for School District 60, with eight new teachers from outside the district hired so far. There are 22 teaching positions that need to be filled for the upcoming school year.
“Our percentage of returning teachers is very high,” Superintendent Stephen Petrucci told the Board of Trustees meeting on May 23. There is the usual shuffling of positions, with teachers within the District moving into positions at other schools, which in turn opens up posts, but this happens every year, Petrucci said.
Another reason for the early filling of the positions with teachers from outside the District, is the early posting of the upcoming vacancies.
“We’ve been posting since the end of January, “ Petrucci said. “Some other districts don’t post until the first of June. We’re one of the first districts out of the gate.”
Petrucci is predicting that the District will need to rely on teachers who are working under Letters of Permission (LOPs). He added that there aren’t many teachers on temporary contracts who are leaving.
LOPs are teachers who have a degree, but not a teaching certificate. They are hired on contact for one year – this is only for cases where the District is not able to find a qualified teacher for a particular role. With new opportunities emerging in the province for online and hybrid teacher education, Petrucci is hopeful that more LOPs will become certified.
“It’s difficult to be away at full-time training, especially for mature teachers,” he said. “Our Board has been advocating this for a long time.”
Before LOPs can apply for the various teaching positions, the posts must be advertised for two weeks. And it can only be put out to LOPs if there is no qualified applicant in Canada. As a result, some LOPs who want to remain in the District might end up on the Temporary Teachers on Call (TTOC) list, he said.
“We’re always trying to put in certified teachers first,” Petrucci said. “That’s one more thing that districts which struggle with recruitment have to deal with, is the last-minute aspect to filling classroom positions.”
There’s a lot of work going into teacher retention in northern, rural and remote districts. How are we supporting them and improving retention, Petrucci asked. He would like to see advocacy for teachers and student teachers in these districts. This might take the form of bursaries for third or fourth year students, in exchange for a contract when they’re certified. Or wage incentives, through mid-contract modifications.
“Teachers who go to northern, rural remote communities (could) start on step 2 or 3 of the salary grid,” he said. “There are systemic ways to do this. The Ministry could develop a triage of the most in need – the most rural, the most remote – and different ways to support them through differentiated salary starting points."
After years of advocating for flexible teacher education programs for the North, so that we don’t lose our young teachers to Alberta and other provinces, there seems to be some progress.
“Not only are they listening, but we’re starting to see some clear concrete examples that they’re putting forward,” Petrucci said. “Like micro-credentialing, laddering courses and making it possible for teachers to get their degrees online, here.”
“There are still challenges, but there are things that are changing for the better.”