Northern Manitoba school division struggling with teacher shortage, increasing incentives

The head of Manitoba's northernmost school division says it continues to struggle with staffing shortages and is spending roughly a million dollars trying to recruit and pay teachers incentives to work in the area.

The Frontier School Division, which has42 schools in remote areas of northern Manitoba, is offering new teaching graduates a $10,000 incentive each year for up to three consecutive years.

Eligible teachers who gottheir bachelor of education degree in the 2021, 2022or 2023 calendar years will receive a recruitmentincentive paymentper school year.

"The $10,000, is in addition to salary that we will pay a new graduate in June after they've worked for us for the year,"said chief superintendentsaid Reg Klassen. "We do know that it is having some impact."

Signing bonus on the rise

The incentive is double the signing bonus the division previously offered.

Last year, the divisionhired a full-time recruiter who travels the country. It launched an ad campaign in an attempt to curb its staffing shortage.

"I think by the end of the [2024]school year, when we look at all of the incentives and we look at all of the salary we've paid and all of the travel for recruiting we're going to be nearing $1 million," said Klassen.

Klassen said the division has struggled with filling positions over the years. Last year, it was roughly 45 teachers short to start the school year and was never able to fill 20 of the openings.

This year, 34positions are still vacant in places such as Gillam, about 740 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg, and Leaf Rapids, about 750 kilometres north of the capital.

"It's hard, it's difficult, it's challenging," said Klassen."We have to fill those teaching positions with people that are available and that's usually with a person who doesn't have a teaching degree."

Klassen said that often means one or two educational assistants end up having to a manage the classroom until they can find a teacher.

He said many of the schools are in remote locations, which adds to the challenge of finding qualified people as some are hesitant to move to the north.

"There's a reluctance because there's an unknown element to it. If you grow up in a large urban centre it's [not something] you're accustomed to," he said. "Going to a small community, that seems very far away and very remote."

He said the division may need to expand itssearch in coming years.

"Maybe we need to go to other continents to bring in teachers," he said. "We'll keep searching, but it's a costly venture. We're spending a lot of money."

Hiring struggles

Frontier isn't the only division that struggled to fill positions.

The School District of Mystery Lake in Thompson, about 650 kilometres north of Winnipeg, said it has been a constant issue.

"It was extremely challenging filling vacancies for the past few years.The last vacancy was just filled this past Friday," said Angele Bartlett,the division's superintendent of human resources and policy.

Bartlett said the division has used a number of different recruiting efforts, includingattending various career fairs in and out of the province, and advertising in major newspapers and social media.

She said they are also using Education Canada Network to advertise jobs and one specific feature, Candidate Search,has helped them find candidates.

Bartlett said she often cold calls potential teacher candidates with profiles on the site who have not specifically applied to see if they would be interested in coming to Thompson.

She said they hire the bulk of graduates from theKenanow bachelor of education program at the University College of the North's Thompson campus, which has been increasing its enrolment.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society said there is a staffing shortage in Manitoba and across the country.

It's a profession that is "chronically underfunded," president Nathan Martindalesaid,and teachers have been taking on heavier workloads every year.

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A shortage of teachers is impacting many school boards across the country. The situation in Quebec is so dire that the province says it will have to put unqualified people in schools to supervise classrooms.

"There's people out there who are certified teachers who want to work but they're finding it more and more less attractive to go into the teaching profession," he said."Teachers are expected to do more with less."

Martindale said many teachers found themselves burned out and worn out during the pandemic and the situation doesn't appear to have improved. He said many feel they are hanging on by a thread.

He said that has a negative impact not only on the teachers and staff who are being pulled in multiple directions, but also onstudents who end up bearing the brunt of the problem.

"It's a domino effect," he said."The teacher is being pulled in multiple directions and is often frustrated, just like the students, because their needs aren't being met."

Martindale said if working conditions were better in the classroom, divisions wouldn't have to spend so much money recruiting teachers.