'It's challenging to always be behind' on staffing, P.E.I. school officials tell MLAs

Officials with P.E.I.'s Public Schools Branch are pushing the provincial government to change how it calculates funding for school staff.

They told MLAs at a legislative standing committee Thursday that the current approach is leaving schools short on teachers.

"With our population growth over the next number of years, it is becoming increasingly challenging to be able to staff," said Tracy Beaulieu, director of the PSB.

Beaulieu and Jonathan Mosher, the branch's human resources director, said the problem lies withhow the provincefigures out funding for new teachers. Government's allocation for staff is not based on projected enrolment, but rather the student numbers from Sept. 30 of the previous school year.

Last September, the PSB said total school enrolment was about 20,500. Now it's just over 20,800, and it's expected to grow as the year goes on.

"When you're in a growth phaseand your formula is based on a year prior, it's not using projected numbers," Mosher told the committee.

"It's challenging to always be behind from a staffing perspective."

School administrators asked government for enough money to hire65 new teachersthisschool year. They got 16.

'Nobody has that exact right answer'

Since 2016, the number of staff in the school system has actually increased at a faster rate than student enrolment. But the Public Schools Branch officialssaid they're still playing catch up and need more staff particularly given the growing number of students with complex needs.

The staffing allocation for students with complex needs assumes sevenper cent fall in that category, said Mosher, but assessments done last year show thenumber is closer to 12 per cent.

There's also a growing number of students learning English as a second language, which Mosher saidis a challenge for staff.Those students make up about 18 per cent of the schoolpopulation.

Since July 1, more than 290 new ESL students have arrived, about 18 per cent of whom also havelanguage difficulties, behavioural challenges or medical conditions, said Mosher.

"It's a challenging population to be introduced into the system, and it's just causing more strain on the staff," he said.

The PSB officials said they have flagged the funding formula issue with the Department of Education, and are hopeful it'll lead to changes soon.

"Our deputy minister and minister are very supportive and open to looking at ways to change this moving forward," Mosher said. "The challenge is nobody has that exact right answer today."