Ross Preece When your school roll could blow out by more than 20 students over the summer, establishing teacher numbers for the coming year is the ultimate guessing game, school principals say.

Last year Ashburton College principal Ross Preece signed off with an anticipated Year 9 roll of 255.

By March that number had blown out to 274, the equivalent of one additional class.

This year the college is looking at an intake of 266 students at Year 9. Because the school tries to keep classes at that level to no more than 25 students, Preece faces a dilemma – 10 or 11 Year 9 classes.

The numbers are “ugly” and based on last year’s experience where an additional 21 students turned up at the start of the year it’s difficult to make that decision with confidence, he said.

“Last year it turned out we should have had 11 Year 9 classes.

“You get walk-ups and walk- offs and the problem is you usually don’t get any notification.”

When you get the ugly numbers, Preece said you’re talking 0.2 of a teacher across several subjects if you create an extra class.

And the question then becomes where do those teaching hours come from.

At its last board meeting the college was looking at a long list of vacancies, some from anticipated retirements, but others were because teachers had gained promotion at another school.

“At this time of the year every school is scrambling to be fully staffed by the year’s end, that’s everyone’s goal.”

Currently the college has most of the advertised vacancies filled but in a competitive market there were always areas such as maths, science, Te Reo and technology where schools were chasing staff from a relatively small pool.

“We’re lucky here, if we do have a vacancy we can shoulder-tap our retirees to fill in while we advertise again,” Preece said.

If that wasn’t an option, deputy principals might find themselves taking additional classes to fill gaps.

He’s aware of schools that have been trying for two years to fill hard technology vacancies.

“At the extreme end you might have to put two classes together.

“That’s something we haven’t had to do, but there are schools that’re forced to do that now.”

There was also the option of bringing in someone from the community skilled in a specific hard to fill area and giving them limited authority to teach, but the salary offered fell far short of what they were likely to be earning in the private sector, Preece said.

By Sue Newman © The Ashburton Guardian - 30 November 2019