While many school districts throughout the province are struggling with teacher shortages, School District 27 is seeing a return on its investment in recruitment over the past few years.
Across the region there are 4,700 students enrolled, said district superintendent Chris van der Mark. Enrolment numbers could still change but he said he expects to see an increase of 50 to 100 students this year.
“We’ve been able to absorb the increases so far fairly well,” van der Mark said. “In the South Cariboo, we’re pretty full. Our numbers are up at Peter Skene Ogden Secondary School, 100 Mile Elementary School is pretty tight, so we’re getting there.”
Van der Mark said the area is seeing a “net migration” of families and children into the Cariboo. In fact, SD27 has seen a rise in enrolment since 2021, following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite the increase in students, van der Mark said the district is not experiencing the shortage of teachers seen in other parts of the province. He attributes this to his human resource team who started actively recruiting teachers for this school year back in March.
“They’ve been at it hard and we always want more but I think hiring went really well,” he said. “Starting last spring we also offered a really robust hiring incentive for people coming to the district, so that probably helped.”
Those incentives included financial help relocating and a $15,000 bonus over three years. This not only helped with recruiting but also teacher retention, he said. This year SD27 has 297 teaching staff, 30 of them new.
The Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers’ Association also pitched in, with teachers bringing in colleagues from other school districts to the Cariboo, van der Mark noted. This includes people without teaching degrees who have a “letter of permission” that allows them to teach in a classroom setting.
“They will usually have a degree of some sort but they may not have had their formal training in teaching. We do have some of those and we had quite a few last year,” van der Mark said. “That’s been a thing for seven years, so it’s not new but the levels provincially certainly might be higher. I think we’re starting in a better spot this year where we have more folks with full certification.”
Van der Mark is still looking to hire more teachers, however, specifically substitutes. He noted that SD27 offers a lot of learning opportunities for teaching staff, which contributes to recruitment almost as much, if not more, than a hiring incentive.
“There’s some tight spots around staffing but it’s felt like a really good start,” van der Mark said. “I’m looking forward to a good year.”
Earlier this year, a provincial Labour Market Outlook report predicted B.C. will need 64,500 new education workers over the next decade as the school-aged population increases and current teachers retire. Many school districts, particularly in rural areas, have leaned increasingly on uncertified teachers to fill the ranks.
Several districts have taken to offering lucrative bonuses to draw teachers, including the Gold Trail School District, which includes Ashcroft, Cache Creek, Lillooet and Lytton. Thanks to an anonymous donation, School District 74 began earlier this year to pay new teachers $10,000 and $15,000 bonuses. More than a dozen teachers had taken advantage of the offer.
