The staffing problem being felt currently by the Hastings Prince Edward District School Board is not unique to them.
This, according to members of the HPEDSB Committee of the Whole at Monday night’s meeting.
The topic came up as part of a report on the night’s agenda and officials with the committee pointed the finger at a few problems.
Namely, enrolment is up in the district which has exacerbated a province-wide shortage of educators.
Ben Chapman, Human Resources Manager for the school board, said they’re adjusting their recruitment strategy to keep up.
“Since joining the board in August we have been actively evaluating our recruitment practices and needs with two of the areas of focuses being the educational assistant casual pool, and hiring individuals into that group, as well as our elementary teacher occasional pool due to increases in enrolment that has required us to hire many new contract positions this school year. With our recruitment strategy we’re working with our team to find new and innovative ways to find applicants, however in the current area for some classifications we are noticing shortages in those applicants.”
He went on to say that in consultation with other area boards they understood that the problem is not unique to Hastings and Prince Edward and that they are putting resources into the issue and continuing to hire and onboard staff weekly.
Superintendent Laina Andrews said that during the pandemic in 2020 they did see some early retirements, more than they would and earlier than they would in a typical year, but that the main issue was still the bump in enrolment.
When asked about making the application easier for potential educators, due to the process requiring multiple steps and costing some money, Director of Education Katherine MacIver said they’re working on ways to expedite the process.
“I’m happy to tell you that Superintendent Andrews and Senior Manager Chapman are well on their way to talking about creative ways and looking at our processes in order to make it accessible. Some of the things you mentioned are beyond our control. We certainly know that a vulnerable sector check is mandatory for any education worker and from time to time there is the requirement of fingerprinting as a secondary measure. We understand that those are concerns but I think our department is committed to finding ways to both expedite some of those processes and certainly remove any cost wherever possible.”
The item was only an informational report so there was no decision made on the matter.
