School District No. 74 (SD74) will see some of the benefits from the $50 million injected into the B.C. school system by the provincial government in early January.
The funds were the result of a Supreme Court loss the government suffered in November 2016, when the court restored clauses that were eliminated from teachers’ contracts in 2002 by then-Education Minister Christy Clark. The clauses dealt with class size, the number of special needs students who can be in each class, and the number of specialist teachers required in schools.
Cam Rittinger, president of the Gold Trail Teachers Association, says that SD74 received approximately $192,000 from the $50 million in funding. This has enabled the district to put out postings for 4.2 FTE (full time equivalent) teacher positions at several SD74 schools: a 1.0 FTE teacher in Lytton; a 1.0 FTE position shared between Cache Creek and Clinton; a 1.0 FTE position shared between the two Lillooet elementary schools; and a .2 FTE position at Desert Sands Community School in Ashcroft.
Rittinger says that staff at schools throughout the district had discussions about what was needed. “They took a look at what their special needs were, and these were the priorities as identified by staff,” he says of the postings. “It wasn’t an easy decision. There are so many needs out there. We probably could have used 10 more teachers.” He adds that schools almost had to compete to create a worst-case scenario. “They were almost made to fight over it, and were forced to show who has it worst.”
Teresa Downs, superintendent of SD74, says that it is unfortunate Rittinger feels that schools were made to compete, adding that “I feel our schools are already generously staffed.” She notes that each school in the district had an opportunity to look at any complex needs that existed.
While some larger school districts are finding that classroom space to accommodate new teachers is an issue, Rittinger says that is not a problem in SD74. “We’re more likely to do team teaching, where if someone has a difficult class we’ll put one of these new bodies in the classroom to help out.
“We’ve determined where the needs are, and hopefully we can put people in place to support them.”
The issue facing the district is more likely to be one of recruiting new teachers to fill the recently posted positions, especially with almost every school district in the province looking to hire more staff. “For the last 15 years teachers have been driven away from B.C. because of the 2002 decision,” says Rittinger. “It will take time to rebuild things. We worked well with SD74 staff to identify the needs. It may be difficult to plug them at this time, but we’ll do the best we can.”
Downs echoes this view. “We’re very grateful for the additional teacher funding, but it is a challenge [finding teachers],” she says, noting that the district is still trying to fill a teacher posting that has been up since August 2016. “We’ll do everything we can to attract candidates.
“We have great teachers, and we’re happy to work with them, and with the great new teachers we’ll have coming into the district.”
More new funding for teachers appears to be on the cards for the 2017–2018 school year, and Rittinger says there is a fear that teachers could leave SD74 at the end of the 2017 school year to take positions elsewhere. “The fear of teachers leaving the district is something we recognize as a possibility. Time will tell.”