Student enrolment is rising at the Superior-Greenstone District School Board, but the board is struggling to recruit staff to meet that demand.
During a board of trustees meeting earlier this week, superintendent of business Alex Marton and manager of financial services Brent Harris presented an interim financial report indicating enrolment numbers have risen by 41 students.
The increase creates an opportunity for the board to hire new staff.
According to director of education Nicole Morden-Cormier, the school board is looking to hire a new elementary teacher and a vice-principal of numeracy for the remained of the fiscal year.
“We are realizing that we don’t have enough occasional teachers to be able to relieve teachers, our current staff, to be able to engage in mathematical learning,” said Morden-Cormier.
Morden-Cormier explains that the vice-principal of numeracy will not be limited to one school in the district, but will travel to each school to provide education in math to students.
However, Morden-Cormier explains that recruiting hires to the Superior-Greenstone District School Board is “a significant challenge.”
Over the last few years, virtual learning has been quite prevalent in ensuring that students stay educated.
Morden-Cormier said that one of the teachers that who for the Beardmore Public School lives in Thunder Bay, and that teacher attends class virtually every day and visits the school once a month.
“Anywhere we look, even in Nipigon and Red Rock, close to Thunder Bay, we are having difficultly recruiting staff,” said Morden-Cormier.
Despite the larger geographical distance between each school in the Superior-Greenstone district, Morden-Cormier is optimistic that they will find someone to fill the position.
