The province-wide teacher and Teachers On Call shortage has hit Langley schools hard, with dozens of classrooms not having a full-time teacher in place, nearly a month into the school year.
“The vice principal at Langley Meadows told me that a 4/5 split class is in a portable and because it is a term job only until April he can’t get any teachers interested in filling it,” said Langley school trustee Rod Ross at the board of education meeting last Tuesday.
“My heart goes out to you, but to the parents, too. I hear there are 25 situations like this.”
There are around 25 classrooms without teachers and 19 resource positions that have not been filled throughout Langley schools, said Superintendent of Schools, Gord Stewart.
Restored local contract language has resulted in over 140 new teaching positions in Langley, in addition to the challenges presented by year-after-year growth in student enrolment. However, in June former secretary-treasurer David Green said there would be a teacher in every classroom come September.
Stewart sent a letter home to parents on Friday, asking for patience while they try to find teachers to fill classrooms.
“Every student in Langley is being taught by a qualified teacher though, in some cases, a permanent teacher may not yet be placed,” said Stewart.
“In these cases, measures have been put in place to facilitate student learning and mitigate disruption, including placement of district teachers in classrooms, reaching out to retired teachers to temporarily cover classes and utilizing administrators in the classroom.”
In the case of the grade 4/5 split, Stewart said they are willing to extend the position until June just to attract a teacher to fill that classroom.
The hiring frenzy across B.C. has created chaos in school districts across the province where administrators are scrambling to find teachers, substitute teachers, resource and speciality teachers.
Teaching positions that have proven especially challenging to fill in Langley include French Immersion, trades, tech teacher, special education as well as secondary math and science, said Stewart.
When the Supreme Court restored classroom size and composition language, the province was required to add 2,500 teacher positions across B.C., starting this September.
“We did 261 new hires this year alone. We are casting our net far and wide, going to career fairs, posting across the country to fill these positions,” said Stewart.
“It’s a great time to be a teacher.
“Never has there been a time where teachers can work anywhere they choose. So we are losing some teachers to other areas and gaining some who want to move here. But it’s a real challenge because we are competing with mammoth Surrey.”
But he was candid with his concern on how they are going to fill Teacher on Call positions.
“It makes me nervous. We haven’t hit flu season yet and we are already short TOCs,” he said.
Administrators have been filling the TOC jobs at schools.
Many teachers who were on call have taken full time teaching positions.
Barry Bunyan, school district director of human resources in Langley, said they are doing the best they can.
“We will fill all classroom positions and TOCs, but it will take time. I can’t give a timeline and we are asking for patience,” said Bunyan at the board meeting.
The BCTF just put out a release warning that the shortage is starting to effect student learning.
“In some districts, the work has gone well, but in others, serious problems remain. We’re now hearing of cases where specialist teachers are being redeployed to fill vacancies in regular classrooms,” said BCTF president Glen Hansman on Monday. “This has a detrimental effect on the students who rely on the extra help they get from specialists. For example, some English language learner students or students with special needs are now losing out on time with their specialists because those teachers are being sent into classrooms to cover for absences or unfilled positions.”
The BCTF claims that other than Quebec, B.C. has the lowest starting salaries for teachers making it tought o convince teachers to move to the most expensive province in the country.