School boards say staffing challenges exacerbated by lack of available occasional teachers
Posted February 8, 2022 5:24 pm.
Last Updated February 8, 2022 6:53 pm.
More than one month into the year, school boards in Ontario say they’re still struggling to find occasional teachers for staff who are sick or have to isolate due to the latest wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Toronto District School Board has reported their “fill rates,” also known as how many absence requests are filled, were at 67.5 per cent for the week of Jan. 31 to Feb. 4 down from 92.4 per cent in November for elementary schools.
Secondary school rates dropped by three per cent for the same time, from 88.7 per cent to 85.4 per cent.
TDSB Spokesperson Ryan Bird said in some instances when a teacher is away and an occasional teacher is not available, they look at redeploying other staff from within the school to cover the class or bring in central teachers and administrators to help support schools.
“In rare cases, we do use emergency replacements, those are non-teachers that have been interviewed, vetted, police reference-checked to cover off and ensure that supervision, although that is typically a last resort,” added Bird.
Bird said they are hoping the fill rates start to increase as the COVID-19 rates decline.
“We believe that occasional teachers are not picking up all available jobs, perhaps they are impacted by COVID-19 isolations in cases themselves, or they may be a little bit apprehensive given the ongoing situation,” said Bird. “So, we are hopeful that as the numbers continue heading in the right direction with regard to COVID-19 that so too will our fill rates continue to rise.”
The Toronto Catholic District School Board says while they have not seen a significant difference in daily school staff absences when compared to pre-pandemic levels, they are experiencing challenges filling these absences.
For the week of Jan. 31 to Feb. 4, elementary and secondary schools were dealing with an average absence rate of approximately 11 per cent for teachers and of those vacancies, the average fill rate for teaching positions was approximately 60 per cent.
A statement from the TCDSB spokesperson said staff are being redeployed at schools to support where they’re needed to “ensure the safe supervision of students.”
“Schools continue to work with students and their families to address any potential opportunity loss, including determining areas to improve learning needs,” the statement continued.
Both the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) say the issue is occasional teachers don’t believe schools are safe and without paid sick days, they don’t believe it’s worth the risk. They say it’s an issue that’s happening province-wide.
CEO of OSSTF Karen Littlewood said these teachers’ absences are not something that is “malicious or habitual.”
“These are people who are ill. They are often on mental health leave or they have COVID or any other issues,” said Littlewood.
She says they are seeing a number of people who have basically taken themselves off the “fill list” because of safety. She adds there are multiple concerns, but a lack of N95 masks has been a key one.
“We were supposed to have them for all of staff available within the school system and now I’m hearing that they’ve run out. In certain areas, people don’t have access to them anymore. That’s one layer of protection that people have,” said Littlewood.
ETFO President Karen Brown also said class sizes and social distancing remain a concern for some of their teachers.
“Those who are occasional teacher members don’t have benefits and don’t have paid sick days. So they’re weighing those odds, really looking at it and saying, ‘Is it worth putting my family at risk, putting my health at rest, knowing those situations still exist?'”
The teachers’ unions are concerned the students aren’t actually being taught, and are merely being supervised instead.
“I think a lot of parents thought returning to in-person learning, it’d be consistency and stability. We have unqualified people moving in and out there, they’re not trained to deliver the curriculum,” added Brown. “They’re really there [just] supervising. So, there continues to be a lot of interrupted learning.”
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the province has been prepared for high rates of absenteeism, saying their government “put a plan in motion to keep schools open and stable, including increasing the talent pool who can fill in.”
“We announced a $304-million expansion of funding to hire more staff [and] … We’ve doubled the number of days retired educators can work,” said Lecce.
The Ministry of Education added that school boards have been directed to exhaust all efforts to fill staff vacancies before operational closures and that could include hiring teacher candidates with temporary teaching certificates.
However, the unions are asking for long-term plans and solutions that would make occasional teachers feel safe enough to come back.
“There needs to be a long-term plan and a long-term solution to make the system better where our occasional teacher members will feel confident in taking on these jobs,” explained Brown. “We need a long-term strategy to help to reduce that learning loss, and to provide environments that people want to be welcomed in and prepared to come in and teach or support as educators.”
