LAKELAND - After two years of struggling to keep classrooms adequately staffed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Lakeland school divisions are hoping the 2022/23 school year offers a reprieve.
Within the St. Paul Education district, a number of challenges have been experienced finding both teachers and bus drivers. Students within St. Paul Education will return to class on Sept. 1.
“We have experienced a number of challenges finding teachers and bus drivers. We are depending on staff on our substitute list to teach some classes, and we are deeply appreciative that some teachers have come out of retirement for short-term positions,” explains Superintendent Peter Barron, who took on the role just a few short weeks ago following the retirement of former superintendent and long-time St. Paul Education staff member Glen Brodziak.
Along with working hard to find teachers, it’s also been a challenge to secure Speech Language Pathologists who work with students.
“We continue to look for creative solutions by partnering with neighbouring school divisions,” said Barron.
Heading into the school year, the St. Paul school division had three teaching positions listed on its website, along with substitute teachers being sought. Support staff positions such as a custodian in Myrnam, speech language pathologists, and educational assistants were also listed.
Northern Lights Public Schools
Within the Northern Lights Public Schools (NLPS) region, the staffing crisis that many division – especially those in rural areas – have been experiencing hasn’t been felt quite the same, according to Nicole Garner, NLPS communications and public relations manager.
“We have not seen that kind of level of teachers leaving the profession the way some other areas of the country or around the world have seen,” she said, with just over a week before students were set to head back to classrooms across the NLPS region. Students within NLPS are set to start the new school year on Sept. 6.
Often, the division has less than 15 positions that have to be filled annually, from a mixture of shuffling staff around, retirees and those leaving, she explained.
“We are bringing in a new cohort of new teachers, but the numbers are similar to what we would do in any other year. We’re usually between 10 and 15 teachers and we're right around there again this year, so it’s a normal number for us,” she said, explaining most vacancies are filled by the end of the previous school year, in June.
Teacher report
A report released last January from the Alberta Teachers Association (ATA) includes a survey with over 1,000 Kindergarten to Grade 12 teachers from across the province sharing their concerns. The survey asked teachers predominately, and school leaders, a series of questions related to the impact of the pandemic, classroom challenges and career satisfaction, among other topics.
The 60-page internal survey found that “one-third of respondents reported that they are unsure (20 per cent) or will not (10 per cent) be returning to their current teaching position for 2022/2023.”
The response included 16 per cent indicating that they plan on retiring, 14 per cent leaving the profession all together, and seven per cent moving to another province to teach. The ATA report cited that the survey also found concerns of fatigue, anxiety and stress among the respondents.
“Stress continues to be at an unsustainable level (88 per cent) within the overall sample, breaking down to 54 per cent strongly agreeing and 34 per cent in general agreement with the statement: ‘I feel stressed'.”
The extended report is a part of a series of pandemic surveys the ATA rolled out to teachers and school leaders who hope to understand the challenges that came with the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the NLPS division, the pandemic and illness over the last two years did cause a lot of challenges, but today those concerns don’t have a direct correlation with hiring teachers, said Garner.
However, one of the areas that has seen a concern, for a number of years now, is filling Educational Assistants (EA) and support staff positions, she explained.
Through a grant program called Jordan’s Principle, which is dedicated to filling teaching support staff for First Nations children, the division will have more opportunities to support all students, once positions are filled, Garner explained.
“We've had so many of those approved that we are hiring to fill all of those positions,” she said, which is a positive challenge meant to support student's educational needs.
“We do currently have some vacancies for EAs, but this would be above and beyond what we would have hired in a normal year… it's not like one or two more, it’s like 30 to 40,” positions that are available, Garner explained.
Lakeland Catholic School Division
Going into the school year this fall, Lakeland Catholic School Division (LCSD) has found filing positions more challenging. The reason? Not enough teachers are applying to vacant positions primarily, the division’s superintendent Pamela Guilbault told Lakeland This Week, in an emailed statement last week.
“This year, our division is finding it more challenging than we have in the past. In previous years, there have been more candidates applying on our recruitment platforms, but due to the pandemic, many of the typical recruitment opportunities we have accessed in the past, were unavailable. This has resulted in a unique challenge as we staff for the 2022/23 school year.”
The lack of candidates isn’t only impacting the education field, but other industries also, Guilbault added.
“Every industry was impacted by the pandemic, with staffing shortages experienced across the province. Our division is not immune to that effect.”
While Lakeland Catholic has successfully filled all available positions with temporary contracts, they are experiencing a shortage of French Immersion teachers, stated the superintendent.
"Currently, we continue to advertise for French Immersion teachers as we foresee the demand for teachers with specialized bilingual language skills to be high,” she said.
Hiring rural
Considering the unique situation of hiring teachers in rural communities, NLPS has been fortunate to re-purpose teachers throughout divisions and hire substitutes into permeant positions, Garner said.
“We're very fortunate again to have teachers… some of whom were on temporary contracts filling in for maternity leave last year, who have now moved into teaching positions with us that are not temporary anymore,” she says.
Moving forward, while the pandemic concerns are not out of the way, NLPS is focusing on supporting not only the learning needs of students but the mental health and physical health of everyone in NLPS schools, she explained.
“Hopefully, we can focus a little more on recovering and supporting everyone from a mental health and physical health perspective,” while continuing to foster a positive school environment and valuing staff members, Garner said.
