Resources to the Classroom

1000 classrooms without teachers, yet we keep adding administrators?

It's hard to believe, but last year there were over one thousand classrooms left without a teacher that day. One thousand times that libraries closed, one thousand times special needs went unaddressed, one thousand times that high needs kids were left with strangers.

It's just a number, until it's your child trying to adjust to a revolving door of teachers.  Until there is no Educational Assistant for your grandchild. For my son it was grade 8 Science. For two months, no teacher stayed for more than a day or two. Curriculum was set aside for an endless string of "study blocks''. No one from administration ever reached out. We still have no idea how this will impact his success in grade 9.

Families count on our schools to be safe, consistent and professional environments for their children. Our current administration has focused on creating bureaucratic systems that only serve to siphon precious resources away from the classroom. Of course funding always follows administration in the form of executive pay and expense accounts. However, this isn't just about money any more. As administration grows it recruits much needed licensed teachers out of the classroom and into offices. This must stop.

As a trustee, I will bring a motion to the board before the end of the year to do a detailed review of just how many licensed teachers our district employs to not teach students. There is a crisis in human resources throughout post-pandemic Canada, and the best short-term solution is to keep teachers teaching. Our district must reject the bloated administrations of the past and empower a new generation of professional, well-resourced teachers who deal directly with their families at what I call the Parent-Student-Teacher intersection.

Because that's where learning takes place…not in offices.