Calgary school boards ramp up hiring ahead of fall semester
CBC
Two of Calgary's largest school boards are in the midst of filling vacant teaching positions ahead of the fall semester, after the provincial government increased funding for the effort.
The Calgary Board of Education's budget for the new academic year has been increased by $130 million to focus on "addressing the needs of a projected 138,000 students," the CBE said in a statement Tuesday.
That additional funding will in part be used to hire more teachers, education assistants and other staff members, the CBE said.
The school board is increasing full-time staffing by 774 positions, and of that 747 positions " will directly deliver and support teaching and learning in CBE schools," they wrote.
The Calgary Catholic School District, CCSD, is expected to receive $35.6 million in funding from Alberta Education
"A portion of this new funding relates to the teacher salary settlement; therefore, the residual new funding is [$24] million," said Joanna French, communications specialist with CCSD.
"CCSD anticipates hiring more than 75 new teachers to support projected student enrolment growth, as well as over 40 education assistants to support increasing complexity in student profiles."
On Tuesday, Alberta's Advanced Education Minister Demetrios Nicolaides said in a statement these investments are so that "this upcoming school year starts off on the right foot."
"Budget 2023 increased the investment in education by almost $2 billion over the next three years. We're providing new funding to help hire up to 3,000 educational staff and to building schools in our growing communities," reads a statement from his office.
While planning is in place, it can be difficult to be sure what shape classrooms will be in until the new school year begins, says Allison McCaffrey, president of Calgary Catholic Teachers' Local 55, an organization which represents Catholic teachers in the city.
"Everything's done on projections and they're pretty good at projections, but you never know until people arrive through the doors on the first day," she said.
"If those numbers don't match what is funded for, that's where you have that gap."
The CCSD anticipates about 60,500 students for the new academic year, which indicates higher than anticipated enrolment.
McCaffrey says if classroom projections are wrong, the school board will draw on its substitute teacher pool. That can be worrisome come cold and flu season in mid- to late-September, she says.
