The school year has already started, but School District No. 91 (Nechako Lakes) is still seeking teachers to fill full-time roles.
The school district is currently seeking ‘district teachers on call,’ who are used as substitutes to fill in for day-to-day absences.
“We could use eight to 10 of these positions in School District 91,” said Manu Madhok, assistant superintendent for School District 91, last week.
Four of these positions are needed in the Burns Lake area.
“This situation is a result of the increased hiring across B.C. and we know there are many districts facing similar challenges,” Madhok said last month.
Earlier this year, the B.C. government committed $330 million to settle a dispute with the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, funding 2600 new teacher positions. After the announcement, School District 91 anticipated that the additional hiring across the province would put a further strain on attracting teachers to the region.
“As a rural and remote school district, hiring qualified staff has been difficult for many years,” Madhok said earlier this year.
A few weeks before classes started, School District 91 still had 14 full-time and part-time positions open.
Three of Francois Lake Elementary’s four teachers are new this year.
“Internal transfers, leaves, etc., impact all of our schools at the end of the school year with Francois Lake [Elementary] being no different,” said Madhok.