Watering down education'

Emergency replacement staff, who have no training in teaching, were used 24,468 times this year

- ISABEL TEOTONIO

Ana Ledo, co-chair of the parent council at Roselands Public School, is concerned kids are missing out on curriculum because certified teachers aren't leading the class.

When a teacher at the local elementary school urged Jim Clayton to become an emergency replacement person — someone the principal calls to cover an absence when a supply isn’t available — he thought he was kidding around.

Clayton assumed he needed a teaching degree, but that wasn’t the case, so he applied. A jazz pianist and vocalist, he works evenings, and is happy to help at the east-end Toronto school his daughter attended, where he volunteered in the music program.

After getting the job last spring, he thought he’d cover the occasional class. But in the past year, as the province grappled with a teacher shortage, “Mr. Jim” became a regular at Secord Elementary School, often there a few times a week.

“I’m a desperate measure for desperate times,” he told the Star. “As much as I like doing this, in a perfect world, I would not be necessary.”

And in this final stretch of the school year, when absences typically rise systemwide, “they’ll take every day I can give them. It’s rare that I’m free on a day and they don’t snap it up.”

The Toronto District School Board’s reliance on emergency personnel — including parents, grandparents, lunchroom supervisors and community members — to supervise elementary classes skyrocketed this past year. The practice, used by boards provincewide, has raised concerns about the impacts on kids’ learning and safety.

“Ideally we want a qualified teacher to fill those jobs,” says board spokesperson Ryan Bird. “As a last resort though, when we have a decision to make about whether to have nobody or an emergency response person, we always have to err on the side of supervision and safety. That’s why we need to be able to hire emergency response personnel.”