Teachers?

[patcon40]

Hi, DOes anyone know what the market is for teachers in the area?

[Nostradama]

Lousy. Sorry.

[Shelo]

Very, very, very low. There are MANY teachers in this district who have been subbing for 7+ years and are still unable to get even part-time contract positions, let alone permanent ones. Unless you are transferring considerable seniority from another district, your chances are very slim.

[Nostradama]

Very, very, very low. There are MANY teachers in this district who have been subbing for 7+ years and are still unable to get even part-time contract positions, let alone permanent ones. Unless you are transferring considerable seniority from another district, your chances are very slim.

Oh boy, I hate to say this, but unless there's been a huge change that I haven't heard about (and I think I would have, because I have friends who are still teaching), seniority from another district isn't transferable when it comes to their "recall"/hiring list. Years of experience might place an incoming teacher who actually did manage to get a job higher on the stepped scale that goes on for several years, increasing each year until the teacher reaches the end of the number of required years, but it wouldn't bump someone moving from another school district into this one higher on the hiring list. If you're new to the district and manage to even get yourself on the "recall" list (teachers who've worked at least a little bit in a regular teaching position, like one secondary school class for one semester, and there are some who actually do jobs like that) you'd be at the bottom of the recall list. If you've never worked in the district at all, you wouldn't even be on the recall list. I hate saying this, but this is the way it is. I've got former students teaching all the way from Russia to Thailand to Paris. Well, Paris isn't bad, that's true, but they'd rather be teaching somewhere in BC.

[Shelo]

I believe there has been a change.... my husband was able to transfer 20+ years of seniority from another district (northern BC) last year. He transferred into a full-time position and had several subs tell him out-right that he shouldn't have been hired and the job should have gone to someone local.

I have taught in 4 districts (3 provinces) myself and I hate to say it.... District #68 has the most confusing human resources practices I've ever seen.

[Nostradama]

I believe there has been a change.... my husband was able to transfer 20+ years of seniority from another district (northern BC) last year. He transferred into a full-time position and had several subs tell him out-right that he shouldn't have been hired and the job should have gone to someone local.

I have taught in 4 districts (3 provinces) myself and I hate to say it.... District #68 has the most confusing human resources practices I've ever seen.

There must have been, and I haven't heard about it. But if those subs (ETOCs, they're calling them now) were saying that to your husband, then they're operating with the old set of rules. You'd honestly think the local teachers' association would have told them. You are absolutely right about District 68's human resources and personnel practices being totally confusing. When I was doing my MBA at UBC in the early '90s, UBC's post-grad Faculty of Commerce & Business Admin was using some of the "Nanaimo experience" as "what not to do in personnel management." My thesis advisor, who was married to a Vancouver district teacher, was forever "doing coffee" with me, actually fishing for more information on good ole SD 68.

[kickidee]

I have a friend who is trying to find work who has had some contracts in the north Island but is not having any luck finding a job in Nanaimo.. She has to go back to her ECE to do any teaching whatsoever. Of course there is always work for ECEs who are lowley paid and have no benifits or good working condintions.
However I am wondering if a TA position to start might get a teacher into the system and onto a job as the older teachers retire?
Perhaps even these positions are hard to impossible to get.

[sreno7]

an EA position won't help a teacher. EAs are in CUPE and teachers are in NDTA, two completely different unions so seniority in one won't lead to a job in the other.

[Nostradama]

With no apologies for wandering off-topic. The EA/TA situation is covered in the first paragraph and first half of the second paragraph where I'm talking about kids with special needs who couldn't make it without EAs, so if you don't want to read off-topic, just stop there.

TAs (teacher assistants) are now called EAs (education assistants). Last week the board announced they were cutting three or four FTEs (full time equivalents) working as EAs. Since there are a lot of people, EAs and teachers, working in part-time jobs, that could mean six or eight, or more, part-time EAs are losing their jobs. As in, two people working half-time as EAs would equal one full time equivalent EA. So things will be worse than they already are. The only thing that cheers me up is that finally, finally, they're cutting three administrators out of the board office. There are so many middle-level administrators working out of the school board office that I'm surprised the building hasn't collapsed from the weight. Seriously. The money has always seemed to go to hiring more administrators, coordinators of this and that, and district principals. What the heck is a district principal? I worked thirty years in this district, I remember when the first "district principal" was created, and I never figured it out.

We haven't got enough people working directly with the kids, and way too many people "adminstering". You want "administration's" latest little dilly? Unless parents and taxpayers create a major stink, they're going to offer a course in "horsemanship" . The students don't even need to own a horse to take the course. We've got kids who need serious help in learning to read and write because they have learning disabilities; autistic kids (autism spectrum disorder) who might need help at different levels, depending upon what type of autism it is; we've got kids who have serious vision problems; kids with serious hearing problems; kids with serious mental health problems; kids in wheelchairs because of physical problems (some kids in wheelchairs have to be catheterized during the day--I taught one of them); and on and on and on. Some of the people who work specifically with those kids are losing their jobs. And we're going to fund a course in horsemanship? Gimme a break. Put the money to the people in the classroom, specifically the kids. I remember times in the past when I was buying a lot of classroom materials out of my own pocket: lined foolscap (long) paper, photocopy paper, etc. And I bought my own photocopier, which I had at home, because at the time we were limited on the number of copies we could make per month in the school. One time there weren't enough textbooks for all the kids in one class of mine, there wasn't enouogh money to buy more, and every night I photocopied the pages kids without textbooks would need the next day. At home, on the photocopier I'd paid for, with paper and toner that I'd paid for, too. I had a three-hole punch in my desk, the kids had binders, and they "built" the textbook as we went along. (Yes, I broke copyright laws--bust me for that, and I don't care, because it would have given me the chance to testify in court exactly why I had to. I'd have welcomed that opportunity.) That's not all that I paid for, but I'm not going to list all the things I bought because there wasn't any money left for the school or the school district to buy them. I'm not complaining. I was just darned lucky and grateful that I had the money to do that--a lot of young teachers supporting non-working spouses and pre-schoool kids of their own couldn't afford to do that.

The only other time I remember a school board office based administrator/coodinator was bumped out and back into a classroom was in the late 1980s. So it's way beyond time for them to start chopping from pretty close to the top of the tree.

The school board just before the current one had more retired teachers and retired education administrators than "civilians" (for lack of a better word.) After the last election, there was a little change; they aren't in the majority any more, but there are still a lot of them. The next school board election is in November, same time as the civic elections. Remember that. Do you want people who messed up the system (to be fair, with help from the Ministry of Education) running the school district? Or do you want people who represent the average taxpayer who's paying the bills?

When I retired the entire school board, including the superintendent (sort of the "chief executive officer") of the school district attended the retirement dinner. Granted, there were several other teachers retiring, too, and they regularly attended them, but I was the one they knew best, and as a pest who asked awkward questions some of them didn't want to answer. I was pretty sure that some of them were there just to make sure that I was really doing it. The superintendent, a good guy and a friend, was there because he knew my retirement speech was gonna scorch the drywall, and it did. Now some of them worry that I might run for school board. No, I'm not adding to the number of retired teachers and administrators on the school board. What we need are "average Jo or Josephine Citizen", hopefully parents with kids in the system, on the school board. Being a school board trustee ain't rocket science. We need a "real world" eye on things. Please.

I have a friend who is trying to find work who has had some contracts in the north Island but is not having any luck finding a job in Nanaimo.. She has to go back to her ECE to do any teaching whatsoever. Of course there is always work for ECEs who are lowley paid and have no benifits or good working condintions.
However I am wondering if a TA position to start might get a teacher into the system and onto a job as the older teachers retire?
Perhaps even these positions are hard to impossible to get.

[garfield]

Yes the chances of getting in to teaching in Nanaimo is slim. I am a teacher with 5 yrs seniority in the district and I have been laid off every year. It is isn't as bad as TTOCing for 7 years with no contract at all but full time is nearly impossible. To transfer your seniority from a different district you first have to have reached continuing status within the district. This info was sent out to the NDTA members but many don't read the mail. If you have a high demand specialty such as learning assistance or Industrial Ed or French Immersion you have a much greater chance.