The Rainy River District School Board has been forced to limit the number of students at one of its rural schools.
Speaking at a recent school board meeting, Education Director Heather Campbell noted a lack of teachers at McCrosson-Tovell School in Sleeman is the reason.
“Unfortunately, we were unable to retain the staff that we had hired there as they posted out, and we currently only have JK to grade two, and we are temporarily accommodating our students from grades three to eight at Riverview School as we continue to work to try to fully staff that school,” says Campbell.
Campbell says they had explored the idea of using second-year Lakehead University teaching students, but that would have meant the students having to defer their learning for a year, becoming a barrier for some who expressed an interest.
She says the school board and the university continue to discuss other options.
Staffing was one of the issues raised when Education Minister Stephen Lecce met with board officials this summer.
The board enters the new school year with fewer occasional teachers and casual educational assistants than ever before.
Kevin Knutsen, Executive Officer of Employee and Labour Relations, says they have been trying to think outside the box with recruitment.
A hiring fair will be held at the board office on Wednesday.
Knutsen says they are also looking at unqualified personnel.
“We’re possibly going to need to look at more unqualified emergency teachers at times, and we’ve often been able to manage as best we can without doing that. But we want to be prepared in case we do have to rely on that a little bit more,” says Knutsen.
Also impacting the board is a decision by the Ontario Teachers Federation to not allow retired teachers to work as substitutes for more than fifty days in a school year.
The Federation allowed retirees to work as many as 95 days last year as students and staff returned to a full year of in-class learning after the disruptions caused by the pandemic.
“That’s a hard no this year,” says Campbell. “We rely on our retirees. We appreciate their support, but without them being able to extend beyond 50 days, we are going to see some real challenges.”
The board has also asked the Ministry to consider extending the Learn and Stay Grant to teaching.
The program was set up to provide funding to students studying in priority healthcare programs on a promise to work in the community they are studying.
