An average of two classrooms per day were not covered by a teacher-on-call in New Westminster in October, according to a recent school district report.
Robert Weston, the district’s director of human resources, presented the report to the board of education at a combined education policy and planning committee meeting last week. The report showed that in the month of October there were 41 total absences by enrolling teachers that went uncovered, according to Weston.
(Enrolling teachers are teachers who are assigned a specific classroom and non-enrolling teachers include teacher-librarians and resource and learning support teachers.)
The former school board passed a motion in October to have staff start tracking absences and coverage in the school district. This was the first report to come out of that motion.
Former trustee Kelly Slade-Kerr, who put forward the motion last month, hoped that by keeping track of this information the district would be in a better position to mitigate any possible teacher shortage.
While the goal is to eventually track what teacher absences are covered by non-enrolling staff, right now the district could only provide the number of absences in October that were not covered, according to Weston.
“It’s the first time it’s come to you, and it’s still in development,” he told trustees.
“I would expect that the next report would be somewhat more detailed.”
Overall, the absentee rate for teachers in New Westminster was about six per cent. For special education assistants, the absentee rate was 14.5 per cent, according to Weston.
The new school board asked why the rate of absences among special education assistants was so high compared to teachers, but staff were unable to provide any answers, noting the report did not look at why staff were missing work. (The report does not include staff away on short- or long-term disability.)
Weston said the November report will include a breakdown of when enrolling teacher absences are covered by non-enrolling teachers or school-based administrators.
