Teachers on the North Shore are applauding an interim deal between the province and the teachers’ union that will see money going toward more classroom help within the next month.
On Thursday, Education Minister Mike Bernier announced the province will spend $50 million to hire teachers and provide more classroom supports between January and June of this year.
The interim deal comes out of talks between the province and the B.C. Teachers Federation’ following a Supreme Court of Canada decision in November. The court ruled the government infringed on teachers’ rights when it ripped up contracts in 2002 that set limits on class sizes and the number of special needs student who could be placed in each classroom.
So far the government has not announced how much each school district will get of that $50 million but the money will be distributed roughly according to student enrolment figures.
Martin Stuible, president of the North Vancouver Teachers’ Association, said he’s hoping that will translate into approximately $1.5 million for North Vancouver that could be used to hire between 30 and 40 more teachers for the rest of this school year.
Because most classes have already been set for the school year, Stuible said it’s likely most of the money in this round of funding will go to providing additional help for classroom teachers, especially in those classes with a number of special needs students.
“There’s many classes in this district that have four, five, six, seven, eight (special needs students),” said Stuible.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Education, in North Vancouver last year there were 336 classes with more than four special needs students in them. Of those, 183 classes had seven or more special needs students. A total of 246 classes had four or more English language learner students, including 61 classes with seven or more ELL students. There were also 141 classes with more than 30 students.
Rob Millard, president of the West Vancouver Teachers’ Association, agreed that dealing with class composition is a top priority for teachers.
One solution might be hiring “itinerant” teachers, who could “help out where needed,” said Millard.
Both warned, however, that hiring more specialist teachers may be easier in theory than in practice.
“It will be a challenge because over the years a lot of people have chosen not to go into teaching,” said Stuible.
Teachers who are experts in supporting students with special needs and others such as French immersion teachers are always in demand, he said.
“Those teachers are going to be in demand by the other districts as well,” said Millard. “There’s going to be a bit of a hiring binge.”
Millard added West Vancouver faces a special challenge because 60 per cent of its teachers don’t live on the North Shore and may be tempted if offered jobs closer to their homes.
“If you live in Coquitlam or Port Coquitlam that may make more sense,” he said.
Over the longer term, school districts may also find themselves dealing with a space crunch as schools adapt to smaller class sizes and therefore possibly a need for more classes.
“We will need more classroom space,” said Stuible. “They are going to have to look twice at (the plans for the replacement of) Argyle.”
The $50 million equals about 1,100 teachers provincewide, according to the ministry.
The funding will go towards hiring more classroom and specialist teachers “where it is feasible to do so.” Where that is not practical, school districts can also use the money to upgrade qualifications of existing teachers and recruit new hires.
