The process at the Peel and Niagara DSBs

“As a board,” says Lynn Hiebert, OCT, Superintendent of Human Resources Support Services for the Peel DSB, “we want to ensure that an occasional teacher placed in a classroom is the most qualified and certified candidate who best meets the needs of the students.”

She explains that the need for occasional teachers varies from year to year or even month to month, based on a variety of factors. In September 2010 Peel had a posting on its online application centre (Virtually in Peel) for elementary and secondary candidates interested in applying as occasional teachers. The board received 5,000 applications from experienced teachers, teachers new to the profession, recent graduates from faculties of education, internationally educated teachers and retired teachers.

After a screening process, teams of principals and vice-principals centrally interviewed selected candidates and then recommended which ones should be considered for occasional teaching. The interview process took place throughout the fall and winter, and by mid-December board personnel had determined that 200 elementary and 75 secondary teachers would be added to the occasional-teacher list.

“In making this decision,” Hiebert says, “our objective is to balance the number of active occasional teachers with the number required to meet the needs within the system.”

A rumour circulated among Peel occasional teachers in the fall that the Niagara DSB did not hire any retired teachers for its occasional teaching list this year, thus opening up more spots for recent grads.

“That’s not true,” says Heather Bove, Human Resources Staffing Manager for the Niagara DSB. “Anyone qualified to teach in Ontario may apply to teach in our board. Every applicant is screened centrally, and those selected for interviews meet with a principal and are then recommended, or not, to be added to our board’s to-hire list, which in turn makes them eligible for our occasional teaching list.”

The Niagara board, like 55 others, uses www.applytoeducation.com to post jobs and accept applications from the many thousands of teachers who want to work in Ontario’s provincially funded and independent schools.

“But we can’t hire every teacher who applies to teach in Niagara,” Bove explains. “That wouldn’t be fair to those on the list; they’d never get supply work.”

Niagara’s goal is to balance needs, grades, divisions and subject areas while ensuring that those on the list get an average of at least 10 teaching days a month.

“We think that’s fair and equitable,” she says.