School District 43 has hired 319 teachers since January to meet collective agreement requirements that were killed by the BC Liberals in 2002 and restored by the Supreme Court of Canada last year.
The news of so many hires was greeted with jubilation by teachers and school trustees alike at Tuesday’s board of education meeting with one caveat: where to put everybody.
Thirty-eight classrooms were renovated over the summer at a cost of $1.2 million to accommodate additional classes created by the restored contract language. And the district anticipates needing as many as 14 additions for next September at a cost of $14.8 million or more.
SHORT TIMELINE
“For September, we will need school additions,” Ivano Cecchini, SD43's assistant secretary treasurer confirmed to trustees, as he described the work involved in getting schools ready to accommodate the changes.
The problem is the district doesn’t have the money to get started on those additions and will need the funds soon.
“It’s a short timeline,” secretary treasurer Chris Nicolls told The Tri-City News, adding that the district will continue to talk with education ministry officials about the need.
Adding to the uncertainty is enrolment fluctuations that saw roughly 100 students more than expected signing up to attend local schools.
Trustees agreed to start lobbying the ministry as well as local mayors and MLAs to let them know about the need.
Trustee Kerri Palmer Isaak said it’s good news to see so many more teachers in schools, pointing out that some of the new hires have included speech language pathologists and school psychologists.
“It’s been a great opportunity to grow not just our teachers but our support team,” Palmer Isaak said.
$20.9 MILLION COST
So far, the province appears to be willing to cover the costs of the new positions, agreeing to boost the funding level to $20.9 million from the original $16.9 million agreed to in March. That’s on top of $2.66 million received and spent on 71 teachers in the 2016/’17 school year to meet the collective agreement requirements.
In a report to the board, Nicolls stated that the Ministry of Education has committed to this amount, subject to the verification of actual classroom organization and costs to be submitted in October.
The hiring of substitute teachers to fill in for staff who are sick could be an issue when flu season hits, but for now, the district has a substantial list of potential TTOCs, the board of education was told.
