Ottawa school boards set to go on a hiring spree
Ottawa school boards set for hiring spree
Ottawa’s four school boards will be hiring almost 500 teachers before September.
The English public board will have about 166 new teaching positions, not including replacements for retiring teachers. The English Catholic board will be hiring about 140 full- and part-time teachers. The French Catholic board is looking for about 140 teachers, while the French public board needs about 40.
There are a number of reasons. There are retirements, of course, but student enrolment has also increased.
“Ottawa is one of the few cities in the province that will continue to see an increase in the child population,” said Michael Carson, chief financial officer with the OttawaCarleton District School Board, where about 120 of the 166 positions are needed because of an increased enrolment of over 1,200 students.
The province is also requiring smaller class sizes in kindergartens and more guidance counsellors for Grades 7 and 8 students. About a dozen new teachers are needed because the kindergarten class-size cap has been cut from 30 to 29 students. About 20 guidance counsellor positions are to be filled because the education ministry has increased the ratio of guidance staff in Grades 7 and 8 to match that in secondary schools.
The public board, which approved a $974.3-million budget on Tuesday, will also be hiring the equivalent of 25 education assistants and about 10 professional staff, such as social workers, psychologists and speech and language pathologists, and more office staff and vice-principal resources.
The Ottawa Catholic School Board expects to hire about 140 teachers due to retirements and enrolment growth, said director of education Denise André. Enrolment has increased by almost 1,000 students in the past year and the board projects about 700 new students in each of 2019 and 2020.
“We have seen robust development in some suburban neighbourhoods. We’ve seen some older neighbourhoods where young people are moving in,” said André.
The Catholic board approved a $548.6-million operating budget this week. It included about eight new full-time equivalent early childhood educators for kindergartens to handle enrolment growth. A dozen elementary teachers will be hired to reduce kindergarten class sizes.
The board is also hiring seven English-as-a-second-language teachers — much of the enrolment growth comes from immigration — 7.5 guidance counsellors, about 40 education assistants, and a multidisciplinary special-education team with a psychologist, social worker and an applied behaviour analyst.
The French-language public board is recruiting about 40 teachers. Recruitment last year and this year will be the highest in 20 years.
The French language Catholic board, which is hiring 140 teachers, is also looking for about 50 teachers for long-term supply teaching.
According to the Ontario College of Teachers, demand and supply of teachers is starting to balance. About 4,500 teachers have retired annually in recent years. But from 2003 to 2013, about 6,600 new teachers graduated every year. In 2015, teacher education moved from a one-year university program to a two-year program. The change has helped reduce the surplus.
Still, few new teachers will be able to walk into full-time jobs. Under 2012 legislation, publiclyfunded schools must define a “pathway” to permanent employment. Teachers start out working on daily supply rosters and shortterm occasional teaching before they are eligible for longer-term occasional teaching and, eventually, a full-time position.
French is in high demand everywhere, said Janet Fraser, president of the Ottawa-Carleton Teachers’ Federation. The English public board has moved to a model where half of kindergarten instruction is in French. It means half of kindergarten teachers have to be qualified in French, she said.
“Yes, people will get jobs. But if you don’t have French qualifications, those jobs won’t open much for you.” Cheryl Cavell, president of student support professionals at the Ontario Secondary Teachers’ Federation District 25, says 25 new education assistants can’t do much to relieve stress on classrooms. “It’s still not enough.”