LAKELAND - While adequate staffing has been a challenge for school divisions across the Lakeland region in the past, most schools are fully staffed heading into the 2023-24 year.
Meagan MacEachern, communications officer for Lakeland Catholic School Division, said in recent years, schools within the division have experienced staffing shortages, mostly due to teacher retirements. She confirmed that the issue has largely been resolved.
“At this time, the majority of our schools are fully staffed, and we continue to search for talented teachers and support staff to join our school division in order to meet the increase in enrolment Lakeland Catholic has seen over the past few years,” she told Lakeland This Week.
Planning ahead
Nicole Garner, manager of communications and public relations for Northern Lights Public School Division, stated that officials knew that recruitment for the 2023-24 school year could be an issue, and therefore, prepared accordingly over the past year.
“We implemented a strategy for recruitment that included building relationships with post-secondary institutions, attending career fairs, and maximizing the resources available to us to fill positions,” Garner said
She went on to explain that many of the new teachers who took temporary positions or served as substitute teachers with NLPS during the last school year have now moved into new positions for this year.
“We have also had success with practicum students wanting to return and work for us after they graduate,” she said. “Furthermore, we are grateful for our retired teachers who regularly sub for us or who have agreed to take on a temporary or part-time positions.”
Garner said that while there are a handful of positions that the school division is actively recruiting for, overall, they are in good shape heading into the upcoming school year.
Regarding support staff, NLPS has significantly increased the number of educational assistants in its schools over the past 18 months due to securing funding through Jordan’s Principle, a federal initiative designed to provide help to schools and First Nations children.
“We are excited to have the funding and opportunity to provide services to our students. It’s been a challenge to find people to fill all the open positions,” Garner acknowledged. “We have submitted more applications for funding for this year and, as a result, expect more positions to open up throughout the year.”
A little help from the community
Garner explained that the families of students as well as community members have played a pivotal role in helping the school division recruit and retain staff.
“When we shared information about our bus driver shortage earlier this year, there were many parents and community members that reached out to friends and encouraged them to consider becoming a bus driver,” she said.
“Quite often when there is a position at a school for an educational or administrative assistant, parents have helped us to get the word out, which better enabled us to recruit candidates. In the current labour markets, this has made a huge difference in filling open positions.”
