Sooke school district superintendent Jim Cambridge found himself back in the classroom last week thanks to B.C.’s teacher shortage.
Cambridge, the district’s superintendent since 2009, is set to sub for two classes this coming week, after filling in for a special-education class at Dunsmuir Middle School last week.
With a 2015-2016 salary of $178,000, that’s about $685 a day — making him one of the most expensive substitute teachers in the province. An entry-level substitute teacher would make about $45,000 a year, or $173 per day.
“We’ve had a couple of days with heavier draws, but we’ve been able to cover them with district-level staff,” Cambridge said.
He said Sooke is on its way to filling its vacancies, with nine teachers hired within three days last week.
“We’re hoping that within two weeks, we have a complete roster of [substitute teachers] back on board,” Cambridge said.
Cambridge is among several senior staff stepping in to address B.C.’s teacher shortage, which was created after a Supreme Court of Canada decision last November limited class sizes and required the province to hire 3,500 more teachers.
Education Minister Rob Fleming said more than 3,000 teachers have been hired.
Glen Hansman, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, said 430 job postings remain. The union estimates the actual need is about 600 to 700 teachers.
Many full-time positions have been filled by people previously working as substitutes, leading to the substitute-teacher crunch. Other teachers have moved within the province.
“It’s no surprise to me that the on-call teaching lists have been depleted to a certain extent, because some of those people were excellent quality teachers who were working as substitutes for five, seven, even nine years,” Fleming said.
“They jumped at the chance to get a full-time, rewarding career in the school system.”
Fleming said there’s a focus on recruiting from outside the province. He said there has been “tremendous” interest, while Hansman said recruitment has been a challenge.
Entry-level B.C. teachers make an estimated $15,000 to $20,000 less on average than their counterparts in most other provinces, Hansman said. That, and higher costs of living in places such as south Vancouver Island, can make it harder to lure outsiders. “It’s only going to become more of an issue when we bump against cold and flu season.”
Hansman said the BCTF wants more flexibility to recruit new teachers by offering incentives such as student-loan forgiveness, moving expenses and rent subsidies.
But he said it hasn’t seen any significant commitment, beyond the $2 million announced by former education minister Mike Bernier before the May election.
In the meantime, he applauded Cambridge for “good leadership” in stepping in to fill the need.
