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Nanaimo school district recruiting for more teachers

District looking as far as Toronto for teachers at elementary and secondary levels
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Nanaimo school district is recruiting teachers at elementary and secondary levels. (News Bulletin file)

Nanaimo school district is actively recruiting after a Supreme Court of Canada decision paved the way for more teachers in the classroom.

The supreme court ruled that class size and composition language introduced by the B.C. government in 2002 violated collective bargaining rights. A deal between the province and B.C. Teachers’ Federation resulted in additional teachers in B.C. classrooms.

The district has not determined exact teacher numbers for 2017-18, as it is in the midst of budget discussions, but Nanaimo teachers’ union is projecting 70 additional full-time equivalent teachers at the elementary and secondary levels.

Tim Davie, assistant school superintendent, said there has been recruitment from Vancouver Island University and University of Victoria, as well as Simon Fraser University, University of B.C., and post-secondary institutions at Alberta and Ontario. The out-of-province searches are being conducted to fill spots in specialty areas, he said.

The district has gone as far as Toronto to add to its roster.

“Edmonton, definitely a focus was on French immersion there,” said Davie. “Also, in Toronto it was a large fair. We work through Make a Future, which is a provincial consortium school districts use to help with recruiting. They were in Toronto and invited school districts from B.C. to come out with them, so that’s why we were there.”

Math and science teachers at the high-school level and Red Seal-certified teachers for shop and applied trade areas are also being sought, said Davie.

Mike Ball, Nanaimo teachers’ union president, said class size and composition will be addressed in every school.

“Because it’s driven by the number of students, every school is different,” said Ball. “On average, every school’s going to get at least one extra class in elementary. Secondary, they’ll get extra blocks; I don’t know how many, but it means that previously, they could’ve stacked them up to 30 kids, now it will be lower than that, so there’ll be more blocks available.”

According to Davie, teachers on-call are sought, too.

“If we’re depleting our existing [teacher on-call] list, we have to replenish that,” Davie said. “As we’re adding staffing into our system, we also have a need for additional coverage for additional sick leaves.”



Karl Yu

About the Author: Karl Yu

After interning at Vancouver Metro free daily newspaper, I joined Black Press in 2010.
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