The players are coming together for the 2016-17 academic season in the South East Cornerstone Public School Division.
Lynn Little, the division’s director of education, said teacher recruitment has gone well this year with human resources manager Gord Husband filling some of the vital instructional voids that will be created with the completion of the current school year.
The division employs about 550 teachers for the approximately 8,200 students who attend one of the division’s 38 school facilities in southeast Saskatchewan.
“Gord has informed me that teachers are being hired to replace those who are leaving our system or retiring this year and that includes several who are needed on a temporary basis, as well as those who will be filling full-time positions. We don’t expect a big increase in teacher numbers, if at all, because we’re not anticipating a big increase in student enrolments this year. The expectations are about the same as last year, with just a small increase in those numbers,” said Little.
Because of enrolment improvements this year and next in Stoughton and Midale, the position of vice-principal has been reinstated in those two schools, she said.
The division’s only school of necessity, Lyndale, in Oungre, a kindergarten to Grade 9 facility, will see a slight increase in enrolment this year too, which might lead to an increase in staff numbers.
Little said that she, along with all other administrators involved in the provincial educational system, is anxiously awaiting the release of the provincial budget on June 1, since there have been rumours of possible significant changes to the provincial education system and how it does business in the future.
“There may be a funding formula review but any changes that will be forthcoming, will be implemented in the fall of the following school year,” she said.
As far as current business is concerned, Little said the division is coping with their $107 million budget with expected tweaks in such things as teacher salaries and transportation of students, being part of any transformative changes in the future.
