Francophone south cancels 9 classes, braces for 'new normal' of teacher absences, supply shortage

Francophone south school district has already had to cancel nine classes because of a higher than usual absence rate among teachers and a shortage of supply teachers, including three classes on Monday.

The situation is "critical," said district spokesperson Jean-Luc Thériault, noting each cancelled class represents a whole class of students that had no teacher for a day.

"We are bracing ourselves for this situation to be our new normal for a while, particularly this winter," he said in an emailed statement.

But the district plans to create a new dispatcher position, who will be responsible for contacting supply teachers directly each evening to fill in for the next day's absences, which it hopes will help, Thériault said.

Last Thursday, the district advised parents it might have to cancel some classes as a "last resort." It urged parents to check their email every evening and early in the morning in case their child's class is cancelled for the day.

Nearly 15% absent daily

Francophone south is the largest French-language district in New Brunswick with 37 schools in urban centres and rural communities, and a total of 16,245 students, an increase of 564 over last year.

About 175 teachers were absent each day the previous week, said Thériault. That's nearly 15 per cent of the 1,200 teaching positions across the district.

"We don't have precise information as to why our teachers … are absent, but we assume that most of them are sick," Thériault said.

New Brunswick is facing a triple threat of respiratory viruses that has doctors concerned. In addition to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an early increase in the flu and a large number of children are falling ill to respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.

The teacher absence rate has jumped nearly 78 per cent over the past couple of months, according to figures from the district.

There were about 90 teachers absent per day in September, 135 per day in October, and 160 per day in November.

In addition to the three classes cancelled Monday, two were cancelled last Friday, one on Nov. 29, two on Nov. 28, and one on Nov. 25.

"To stop the spread of any virus, we ask all staff members and students to stay at home if they are unwell," Thériault said.

Dispatcher will ask why supply offers not accepted

The district currently has 499 supply teachers on its list.

It's difficult to estimate how many more supply teachers the district needs, said Thériault, but at least 70 are required daily.

The district often needs to find two to three times that many, however, because some of them have other part-time jobs or are post-secondary students, he said.

Right now, the district has an automated system in place, where supply teachers must indicate their availability. "Substitute offers are sent out automatically according to their availability, their criteria and their profile," said Thériault.

In the morning, when there are last-minute supply offers not filled, there are two dispatchers who contact the supply teachers.

"Since the situation is critical, the new dispatcher will contact people on our list the night before as we can already predict that there will be shortages," Thériault said.

"This approach is a bit more human than an automated system and allows us to talk to people and find out why certain offers are not accepted."

The new dispatcher will also call "alternates," who have registered for a specific region to see if they would be willing to go to another region, he said. For example, someone who has registered for the Moncton area might be asked about going to a Shediac school.

"The dispatcher will also contact individuals who appear to be available in our system but have not accepted an assignment," Thériault said.

In order to maximize resources and minimize the impact on family routines, elementary-level classes will be given priority when assigning supply teachers, the district told parents.

To help minimize the impacts in classrooms, the district has also cancelled all "non-emergency trainings" until at least the end of the year,

"We have an action plan that guides principals and vice-principals in their decision making when there is a shortage of supply teachers. We hope that it will take some pressure off their shoulders," Thériault said.

Meanwhile, the district remains hopeful new supply teachers will be available "very soon," through ongoing recruitment efforts, including job fairs, networking events and advertising in traditional and social media, he said.