CORNWALL, Ontario – In a letter to parents dated Monday, March 8, the Upper Canada District School Board (UCDSB) stated that they are continuing to struggle with a shortage of teachers.
At issue are the requirements around self-isolation and testing for COVID-19, which can prevent a teacher from returning to work.
The UCDSB first let parents know that staffing was becoming an issue as early in the school year as late September.
“On any given day over the past week, we have had approximately 500 jobs to find substitute staff for. Finding staff to fill those positions is becoming increasingly difficult and we often have over 150 positions that go unfilled for the day, leaving schools short staffed. A major contributing factor is the length of absences. When a teacher is required to self-isolate for 14 days, an occasional teacher is needed for all of those days,” reads a statement from UCDSB Director Stephen Sliwa dated Sept. 30.
On March 8 the UCDSB stated that these staffing shortages are continuing to plague the school board and could lead to classes being cancelled until suitable replacements are found.
‘We continue to actively recruit, interview and hire teachers for long-term occasional work, bring back retired staff members, and redeploy central staff when possible, however, it is important for our UCDSB families to know if we are unable to have adequate staff in our schools to supervise our students, classes within a school may need to be cancelled until coverage can be found,” reads the UCDSB statement on March 8. “This would be a last resort as it means that those students in the class would not be able to attend school that day. Should this happen, the school would make every effort to have online resources available during the length of the class closure.”
