School District 73 facing teacher-on-call shortage

Dec 10, 2017 | 4:20 PM

KAMLOOPS — School District 73 is on the hunt for more teachers on call.

Shayne Olsen, Associate Superintendent of Human Resources with School District 73, says they’ve hired approximetly one hundred more teachers over the last year as part of the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision to restore small class sizes.

“We’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to fill the positions we had posted so far,” said Olsen.

With more staff he says the problem now is having enough TTOC’s  to fill in when staff are sick, unavailable, or go on maternity leave.

“Right now there’s so many jobs across the province, that if a person wants to have a full time job they can go to another school district and find it so there’s fewer people available to be on the teacher on call list. Right now we have quite a few french immersion teachers who are going on maternity leave, so sometimes we have to ask librarians, the principal or the vice principal might have to cover a class. It’s not ideal but we can’t have a class without a teacher.”

Olsen says the district needs half a dozen more french immersion teachers on call, as well atleast  few more tech and special education assistance staff to be in a comfortable position.

The district says it will continue to rely on recruitment fairs, its close ties with the TRU Bachelor of Education program and the B.C Public School Employers Association to try and fill the vacant positions.