Prairie Rose enrolment steady but division still facing teacher shortages
By Samantha Johnson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter on August 22, 2023.
reporter@medicinehatnews.com Prairie Rose Public Schools is expecting to have just under 3,000 students for the upcoming academic year, which is about the same as last year. There have been some downward trends in rural areas, along with an increase of students at Eagle Butte and Irvine. PRPS will see an increased number of teachers next year, with eight new full-time positions added to staff, bringing the total number of teachers up to 227 (197 part-time and 30 full-time). “We are fortunate that we’ve had a few (teachers) come to our division from Medicine Hat Public but it’s not this major exodus that we are getting all these teachers,” said deputy superintendent Mark Heinricks. “The ones we have, we are excited because they have experience and they’ll be great in their positions and they are willing to commute.” It can be a struggle to fill teaching positions in rural areas, particularly in Oyen, where the division still has a position open at South Central High School and at a colony school in that area. There are a few teachers in PRPS who commute to Foremost each day from Medicine Hat and Heinricks acknowledged how much dedication they have to do that. The Bow Island area seems to be the farthest most people are willing to go. With Oyen about two hours away in good weather, it’s not realistic for most to commute there and back from Medicine Hat, particularly once winter hits. South Central is staffed based on around 150 students, although that number is always in flux with families moving in and out of the area. The school also has a baseball academy, and the number of students it attracts will affect total numbers. PRPS is going to use video conferencing next year at the school. Even though it’s not ideal, they say they are working hard to provide the best opportunities possible for the students in that area. “We’ve had a leave, two move-outs and a retirement in the area. Four at one time is a hard amount to fill and we just keep working at it,” stated Heinricks. “Bless their hearts, we’ve had some people come out of retirement and try to support us in those areas. They’ll do it for a limited time because they want to support the rural community as well.” One of the teaching positions that has been difficult to fill is for a Phys-ed teacher at South Central. “We had adjusted and adapted to try to get something that was very marketable (making it a full-time position), but we can’t get any applicants,” explained Heinricks. There were 10 retirements last year and four of them were from colony schools. There are 18 colonies within PRPS and they are spread as far north as New Brigdon, with many clustered down south around the Foremost area. Heinricks explained that once teachers get on a colony they usually stay for a long time as the class sizes are small and there is lots of support. For the upcoming academic year, 12 probationary contracts were moved to continuous ones, along with three temporary and two interim contracts moved to probationary. For 2023-24, the division will have 22 teachers on a probationary contracts, 19 full-time and three part-time. There will also be 20 teachers with temporary contracts for the year, 11 full-time and nine part-time. PRPS is also increasing the number of educational assistants by two for a total of 117, with some positions still needing to be filled. Additionally, they also have eight family school liaison workers, four speech language pathologists, three therapy assistants and two behavioural consultants/specialists. “We have lots of programming positives happening in Prairie Rose,” said Heinricks. “Our goal has always been to provide programming that is different than what is maybe being offered in the city. We don’t want to be competing with them in that sense. We’ve been very fortunate to have staffing that we call champions of our programming, and once we get a champion our staff seem to just run with it, and we’ve been fortunate that way.” 15-14
