Upwards of one in 10 teachers in the London-area’s two largest school boards have been off sick simultaneously in recent weeks, creating “a perfect storm” that has officials taking unprecedented steps to keep classes open.
Upwards of one in 10 teachers in the London-area’s two largest school boards have been off sick simultaneously in recent weeks, creating “a perfect storm” that has officials taking unprecedented steps to keep classes open.
That description, from London District Catholic school board head Vince Romeo, sums up a confluence of factors facing area educators – chiefly a post-mask uptick in COVID cases that has the Catholic and Thames Valley District school boards hiring not-yet-graduated teachers college students to helm classrooms.
“In the 40-plus years I’ve been involved in education, I’ve never seen school boards interviewing unqualified teachers for emergency supply lists,” said Bill Tucker, the former Thames Valley education director who’s now with Western University’s education faculty.
A “double whammy” – the stress of the pandemic and the advancing age of a large chunk of teachers – has created the vacuum, he said. “(It’s) convincing those in the profession to leave earlier than originally planned.”
In the 23,000-student London District Catholic school board:
- 10-12 per cent of teachers, or 100 to 150, have called in sick daily for the past two weeks. Altogether, about 300 employees are out of action
- Roving specialty teachers in subjects like music and French have been tapped to cover colleagues’ absences in elementary school classrooms. A principal and vice-principal also did so at one school
- On “a few occasions,” Romeo said classes have been combined because one teacher is off sick
- No school in the Catholic board has yet closed during COVID’s sixth wave
In the 75,000-student Thames Valley District school board:
- About 10 per cent of total staff, or roughly 1,000 people, were absent last week
- Learning co-ordinators, English as a second language instructors and school administrators have been called into otherwise-unsupervised classrooms
- Teachers have been asked to use their so-called “prep” period to cover classes
- Two London elementary schools were temporarily closed earlier this month due to staff shortages
Ontario ended mandatory masks in indoor public places, including classrooms, on March 21, though Thames Valley trustees are mulling once again making them mandatory. One scientific advisor to Queen’s Park recently estimated that based on wastewater testing Ontario is adding 100,000 to 120,000 new cases of COVID-19 daily as the sixth wave drags on.
Both London-area boards are hiring students still in the second year of their two-year teachers college programs out of necessity. Romeo has advocated that Ontario universities return to a one-year post-graduate program, down from two, to help fill the growing staffing gap.
“We continue to recruit and look for teachers. We are hiring,” Romeo said.
“It’s what I would call the perfect storm,” he said. “We have the two-year program, many of our teaching staff are at retirement stage, and we have a growing population in the London region.”