Chinook School Division uses various recruitment efforts to attract teachers
The Chinook School Division is using various recruitment strategies to deal with a teacher shortage being experienced across the country.
The activities of the division’s human resources department were discussed during a Chinook Board of Education regular meeting, April 8.
Superintendent of Human Resources Ken Garinger presented the human resources accountability report at the meeting and he also provided details during a media interview with this newspaper the following day.
The school division has experienced a drop in the number of teacher applications per job posting. Data indicate 7.66 applications per job posting in 2020-21 compared to 4.39 applications per job posting at the moment.
“So more than 40 per cent fewer applications from teachers for jobs that we have posted in our division,” he noted. “We’ve increased our recruitment efforts to try and offset that, but at the end of the day it just speaks to the teacher shortage that’s happening around the country.”
Chinook has been using Apply to Education as its job management platform since 2019. It is a useful tool to find applicants for all position types. Jobs posted on Apply to Education are also posted on other social media platforms.
From March 1, 2023 to Feb. 29, 2024 the school division posted 225 jobs, of which 69 were for teaching positions, 112 were for support staff and 44 were casual positions, including one substitute teacher position.
“We’ve done a good job in getting teaching jobs posted early,” he said. “There can be side effects to that if people aren’t looking at the time you post the positions, but you also need to track the talent prior to other divisions. It’s a competitive market out there and people will choose where they want to work. So from that perspective, it’s all about trying to get those jobs posted early.”
Chinook has been expanding recruitment efforts for teachers beyond the two universities in Saskatchewan. It will attend the recruitment fair at the University of Calgary and it has connected with the Mount Royal University education program at Medicine Hat College.
Garinger visited the college in March to make a presentation about the Chinook School Division and to interview students.
“There were three students initially that wanted to have interviews with me and by the time I was done with my presentation, I ended up interviewing eight students and hiring one right on the spot,” he said. “We ended up making connections with the other seven and we’re very hopeful that we’ll be able to see some of those folks come into our school division as teachers.”
Chinook will receive an increased number of interns from the University of Regina for the 2024-25 school year. A focus on interns has become a key recruitment strategy for the school division and it will hire close to 90 per cent of interns when they graduate.
“It’s a huge recruitment strategy, because they get an opportunity with our excellent teachers that we have in our school division to learn about different elements of being a teacher,” he said. “Through their practicum and great support from the teachers that provide those opportunities to our interns, it’s just a win-win situation for us. Once they come here and realize this is a great place to work, then we tend to find placements for them.”
The current demographic data for Chinook employees indicate that the school division will have to fill about 228 teaching positions in the next 10 to 15 years due to retirements. This number is based on maintaining the same teaching complement that exists at the moment.
“Fortunately, not everybody will retire at the same time,” he said. “We’re looking at an average of about 15 positions every year. That’s not insurmountable, but we need lots of interns and recruitment strategies need to really cast the net far and wide.”
Garinger felt the school division has been successful to provide classroom supports for students within the constraints of the budget.
“We know that educational assistants are critical support for classrooms,” he said. “Since COVID we’ve had an increase in student learning needs in schools and we’ve worked hard to try to address those needs.”
The number of educational assistants in Chinook increased from 195 in 2021-22 to 242 in 2023-24. The school division had to reduce their employment hours from six to 5.5 hours per day due to financial constraints in 2022-23. However, there is flexibility to accommodate the needs of students and the number of educational assistants with contracts greater than 30 hours per week increased from 15 in 2021-22 to 56 in 2023-24.
Chinook currently has a total of 975 contracted employees. It employs 410 full and part-time in-scope teachers, 565 support staff; 286 casual support staff and bus drivers, and 154 substitute teachers. Salary and benefits for personnel represent 72 per cent of the school division’s overall budget.
The retention and turnover rates for Chinook are positive. A majority of teachers (75.31 per cent) indicated they want to remain in their current role within the school division, but there has been an increase in the number of transfer requests.
“Two years ago, we had 20 people requesting transfers and now we’re up to 30 people requesting that change,” he said. “It’s not like they’re wanting to leave the division. They’re just looking for a new opportunity somewhere and the majority of the requests are to get into Swift Current or into a bigger centre.”
There is a low staff turnover rate in the school division. For 2023-24 the turnover rate is nine per cent for teachers and 9.4 per cent for support staff. The average turnover rate for Chinook is 3.8 per cent less than the previous year. The combined voluntary and involuntary turnover rate for Canada is 19.6 per cent.
There are 594 employees in the school division with 10 years or more of service and 832 employees have been with Chinook for five years or more.