‘Fairly and consistently’

Staffing allocations aimed at balancing class size: director

The staffing allocation for the next school year in P.E.I. “puts teachers where students are,” says the director of the Public Schools Branch.

Parker Grimmer says the teacher allocations are aimed at balancing class size and addressing class composition challenges, ensuring schools with similar configurations are staffed in a similar manner and building equity for students and teachers.

He says some schools will see slight increases or decreases, based on the number of students and needs in the school, with minimal impact. Twenty-five new positions, notes Grimmer, were allocated evenly across the province based on the discussions the PSB had with principals. Two positions have been held back to address needs that “invariably come up in September,’’ he adds.

The MacLauchlan government announced recently that 27 new teaching positions were being added to address concerns from teachers who say they are struggling with increasingly complex needs of students in their classrooms.

“As we have always done, teacher allocations will be assigned on an annual basis, based on enrolment and needs in the coming year,’’ says Grimmer. “In summary, we have made gains in building equity across our education system, we have narrowed the gap in studentteacher ratios and next year, we will have more teachers to help students succeed, along with new programming and student well-being supports.’’ Birchwood Intermediate School in Charlottetown will see the largest influx of teachers, jumping from 18.37 full time equivalent positions to 31.93 as the school’s student population almost doubles to 464 due to rezoning.

On the flip side, Stonepark Intermediate School will have the largest drop in teachers, declining next school year by slightly more than 10 full-time positions. The number of students will drop from 911 to 679 due to rezoning. “Teacher positions have been allocated fairly and consistently across the province,’’ says Grimmer.

He also notes student/staffing ratios will improve next school year due to the staffing allocations buoyed by the addition of 27 new teaching positions. Bethany MacLeod, president of the P.E.I. Teachers’ Federation, says the federation is pleased with the announcement of the additional teaching positions but adds the PEITF is continuing to verify the numbers through meetings with the Public Schools Branch and representatives from the Department of Education, Early Learning and Culture.

“We have had an initial meeting regarding a review of the numbers and we have been given a brief description of how those positions have been allocated,’’ MacLeod said in a statement.

“We will, however, need to have another meeting to get a clearer picture of the additional distribution of the added positions and the reasoning behind all of the allocations to schools.”

She adds the release of the school-by-school numbers has allowed for some transparency in the number of instructional positions in the Public Schools Branch. However, the PEITF believes an updated staffing model must be developed to ensure proper resources for all Island schools are implemented automatically and that the process is obvious to all who are interested in how staffing allocations work. “The trend has become that staffing allocations are now coming too late in the spring and the numbers are more based on the provincial budget rather than the actual needs in schools,’’ she says. “Government needs to develop a consistent, fair and effective model that is based on the best interests and needs of our students and their learning. The PEITF is looking forward to meeting with the department and the education authorities to review the existing model, and the federation’s goal is to convince government to update and improve the existing staffing model.”