Northern Ontario school boards grapple with recruiting student support staff as need intensifies

One Sudbury mom is wishing for more support for one of her two elementary school-aged sons as they head back to in-class learning after the disruption of the pandemic.

Ashley Gibson-Taylor says her outgoing 11-year-old is enthusiastic to reconnect with friends, while her eight-year-old with special needs is relying on the help of an educational assistant to figure out a reintegration plan.

Even so, he's a little apprehensive, and Gibson-Taylor says one-on-one attention would help him.

While the long-term impact of remote-learning isn't yet known, the parliamentary secretary to the education minister, Patrice Barnes, says they've had advice that more students are struggling to adjust and the province is responding with additional funding for school supports.

"We've definitely heard that there's been a growth from students being on-line and being at home, that not all children's situations were equal in being at home," said Barnes. "So all home situations are different, so some kids have been affected in different ways."

Barnes says that's why the education ministry continues to offer discretionary funding through the COVID-19 Learning Recovery Fund, amounting to $304 million across the province for the third year of the program.

That's being portioned out with the Rainbow District School Board receiving $ 2.2 million in time-limited and temporary additional staffing supports; the Sudbury Catholic District School board getting $1.4 million; the Near North DSB is being allocated $1.8 million, the Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l'Ontario getting $936 thousand; and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique du Nouvel-Ontario receiving $1.4 million.

Complicating the picture for boards and students in the north is that although they have some extra funding, there is a limited pool of mental health workers, educational assistants, social workers and various support staff identified as key to helping students adapt to normal routine. 

The Rainbow District School Board's education director says he has already hired an additional twenty educational assistants over the number he had in June of last year. 

Bruce Bourget is also re-evaluating the number of tutors that will be needed, expecting to increase their numbers by up to 40% as the year progresses.

He says last year, the board sought out students in teachers' college and certain university programs, but says recruiting is always in flux.

"Some of those students, of course, who were tutors last fall might be teaching for us this year or might be out of town," said Bourget.  "So we're, you know, it's a bit of a piece of reevaluating where we were, where we left off and how we add to our holdings of tutors so we provide as much support as we can."

While Lise Orsini, an educational assistant for the past 22 years, views the hiring of twenty new ones in the Rainbow DSB as good news, she would like to see more considering they have a wider range of duties and responsibilities than tutors in helping students function. 

Orsini, who also represents educational assistants as the president of OPSEU local 614, says they do everything from assisting students with physical needs to get to the toilet to helping others with behavioural issues to socialize on the playground.

She's expecting they'll be especially needed among younger students who may have a harder time getting used to sitting at a desk in a classroom as opposed to a screen at a kitchen table.

"There's a gap socially in what they need to catch up on, academically what they need to catch up on because when you're in-person it's a different style of learning, it's more engaging in different aspects as well," she said. "I do believe that it would be absolutely incredible to have more educational assistants staffed in schools for students that really require it."

The chair of the Sudbury Catholic District School Board says he also sees a special challenge among young students and says most of their discretionary funding will go towards supporting numeracy and literacy among students in grades one through three.

Michael Bellmore is anxious about finding enough mental health supports, considering there's competition between the private and public sector in the north for qualified professionals. 

 "I applaud this government for the dollars they're directing towards mental health," said Bellmore. "The reality is, and we see that in our daily lives here, especially in Greater Sudbury, that we just don't have all the qualified individuals we need to deliver those programs whether it's in the private sector or the educational sector."

As for understanding how the pandemic affected, and continues to affect, learning for students, the ministry of education said it is re-introducing standardized testing this year after an absence of two years.

On its website, the ministry says the tests will be used to assess student needs and where additional focus may be needed going forward with variations in different regions and populations.