With the school year now in full swing, has School District 85 been able to fill its empty teaching positions?
When asked to comment, Acting Director of Instruction, Christina MacDonald, said the school district is “doing very well, and the schools will hopefully be fully staffed soon.”
MacDonald said she doesn’t see any issues, and that if need be, they will “use teachers teaching on call (TTOC’s) from our TTOC list to fill any vacancies.”
She added the numerous teachers that the school district has hired this summer “were all very happy to come here,” citing perks like reasonable housing prices and numerous year-round outdoor activities to partake in.
The B.C. Liberal government signed a deal in March providing $330 million to fund 2,600 new teacher positions, to comply with a November 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that ended a 15-year court battle over contract language governing class size and special needs support ratios.
The settlement was added to when the NDP government took office in July, and the cost is now estimated at $376 million. The agreement is to carry the province’s public school system to 2019, when the current teacher contract must be renegotiated.
- with files from Tom Fletcher