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New West school district set to hire additional staff

The New Westminster school board recently approved $500,000 in extra funding to hire more staff at local schools.
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Folks have until Friday, Dec. 9 (tomorrow) to donate non-perishable food items to Fraser River Middle School’s Christmas hamper program.

The New Westminster school board recently approved $500,000 in extra funding to hire more staff at local schools.

The decision was made in September after senior district administrators approached the school board to ask that $500,000 from the 2017-18 school year’s surplus be used to alleviate “immediate staffing pressures,” according to a staff report.

The funding gives staff flexibility to address staffing pressures in schools beyond what is mandated in a collective agreement. The first step is to identify where the need is, and so the district’s learning services team set out to determine where additional support would be a benefit, according to the district.

“The classrooms of 2018 are complex and diverse. … The ability to draw on these funds, thanks to the support of the board, could, for example, allow us cover additional educational assistant or teaching support beyond the ministry formula for designated students where our learning environments and student needs could benefit,” reads a statement from the district.

The Record asked what schools the new staff would be assigned to and what kinds of positions they would be, and, according to the district, it’s an ongoing process with some positions already posted and more expected later this fall.

Enrolment for the 2018-19 is sitting at 7,200, which is higher than predicted in February, and so the district will also be hiring for any additional staff that comes out of that as well.