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District gets ready for the first bell of the year

Vernon School District has hired more teacher and is ready for the 2017/18 school year
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While a number of districts across the province have been scrambling to fill teaching positions, the Vernon School District is ready for the first day of school with close to 50 new teachers hired and ready to teach.

In response to November’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling that required B.C. school districts to hire additional teachers to fulfill class size and composition requirements, Vernon has created 38 new full-time equivalent positions.

“There’s no question it’s been a busy spring and summer, but it’s fair to say that in terms of hiring teachers compared to provincially, the Okanagan has done very well,” said Malcolm Reid, director of instruction for teaching personnel. “We’ve hired lots of teachers, both from our pool of teachers on call and people looking for work.”

Primary classes are capped at between 20 and 22 students, which has meant the addition of more divisions in the elementary schools, as well as five portables to accommodate those divisions.

“And then in secondary schools, we’ve had a little bit of room but we’ve added a lot more classes, so we’re working hard to implement the restored language,” said superintendent Joe Rogers.

Lisa Laboucane, Vernon Teachers’ Association president, says with the restored language comes more voice and advocacy for district teachers, as well as structures that allow for extra training and support, all of which is built into the language that had been stripped away by the former provincial government.

“That was stripped on purpose when it was taken because those things cost money, when teachers advocate for a student and the things they need, that costs money and the districts weren’t being given the money and had to tell us no all the time, which then landed them grievances, so if the province starts funding our education system better, the advocacy and those processes will bring us the supports the kids need

“It would be better if some funding came as block funding because our current per student funding doesn’t match well with addressing individual student needs and that’s the key; if we all learn the same, great, but some students need way more than that and it’s inconvenient for the province to have teachers to have the right to say what kids need and the right to grieve it and advocate for it, so they took that away for 15 years and it’s not terribly convenient for them to have that kind of process back, so that’s kind of an overarching thing.”

A new teacher orientation session last week brought 40 teachers to an event that usually averages 10.

Reid said when he is conducting interviews, many teachers are drawn to the district because its size means it has that small-town feel yet still offers everything they need.

“It’s been a proud few months for me as a longtime Vernon resident to hear what I’m hearing, people of all ages coming through and they’re targeting Vernon. They’ve done their homework and they comment a lot on the specialty programs we have here,” he said. “We have some jobs that are still available, but postings just closed so they are in process and I’m not worried about that — it is normal business for a school district to have some vacancies at the end of this week that we’re just trying to follow our collective agreement to fill the spots.”

According to Laboucane, the minute students leave school in June, the work begins to organize classrooms to ensure optimum learning, but with schools filled to capacity this year that might look a little different for the first few days.

“Classrooms may not be formed right away, so we want parents to have an understanding because the kids want to know and there is that normalcy that everyone expects — these are challenging situations for us to sort through because we already had space issues in our district; this really is magnified, so there is going to be a lot of problem-solving in the first week of school.”

Laboucane said at the elementary level, a great deal of thought and planning goes into making up each class.

“We generally balance social-emotional before learning because we will find a way to meet the learning needs, but our first priority is creating a class where the kids are going to be able to connect.”

Enrolment is up, as it has been for the past three years, although final numbers won’t be known for a few weeks.

From one end of the district to the other, it’s been a busy summer and maintenance and grounds staff have been working hard putting the finishing touches on a number of projects, ranging from $2,000 to $1,100,000.

“The portables are all in and now they’re all ready to go, mostly roofing, big stuff that has to get done while the kids are out,” said Rogers. “Our custodians and maintenance staff do fantastic work. We have some outstanding people, you could walk into any school today and you can see how great the schools look for kids, with 21 sites and a very dedicated staff, they do a fantastic job.”

Rogers said administrators are working hard to make sure classes are all in place when students show up Tuesday.

“Coming back to school is a very exciting time for students and teachers — there are going to be some challenges in some schools, but we are going to assure everyone that we’ll find a place for them. If we have more students than we expect we will add divisions to schools and make places for people where there’s space,” he said.