After teachers, it is the turn of school principals and their deputies to demand better salary conditions and a lighter workload, as part of talks expected in the coming months with the Quebec government. They thus hope to curb the labor shortage facing these executive positions, for which the attraction has waned in recent years.
Last month, both teacher members of the Autonomous Federation of Education and those associated with the Federation of Teaching Unions endorsed the proposed agreement reached with Quebec following a strike and tense negotiations with Quebec. Teachers in the province will thus obtain, at the end of the signing of their collective agreement, salary increases which will reach 17.4% over five years, while their overtime will now be recorded and remunerated as such by the State.
In this context, assistant principals and school principals see their profession becoming less attractive to teachers in the province, especially in anticipation of the next school year. To prevent the shortage of employees in school management from being aggravated, the various associations which represent them intend to begin talks in the coming months with the Ministry of Education and the Treasury Board, in the hope of reaching a settlement which will improve their salary conditions.
“It is certain that what we are looking for is for the gap to be significant between teachers and assistant principals because if there is not enough of a gap, people will not go to management positions, they will remain as teachers,” fears the president of the Quebec Association of School Management Personnel (AQPDE), Carl Ouellet. However, the new agreement agreed between Quebec and the province’s teachers provides that they will be able to benefit, at the last level, from a salary of a little more than $109,000, which is more than the maximum amount currently offered to assistants. to school leadership.
“At $105,000, you could be the boss of a teacher who earns $110,000 at most,” illustrates the vice-president of the Fédération québécoise des directions d’establishment d’enseignement (FQDE), Elizabeth Joyal, who is worried about the attractiveness of management positions in Quebec schools.
Already, the FQDE, whose members work in 46 of the 61 school service centers in the province, reports 32 management positions and 45 assistant management positions which are currently to be filled in the schools where its members work. Carl Ouellet indicates for his part that around ten management and assistant management positions are to be filled in the schools of the 12 school service centers where the AQPDE has members.
However, in several school service centers (CSS) in the province, the banks of candidates available to fill such positions are simply non-existent. This is particularly the case for the CSS de Laval. It currently has three assistant principal positions which are currently vacant, but no candidate interested in filling these internally, the school service center confirmed to Duty THURSDAY.
“We are worried about the profession,” continues Mme Joyal, whose federation reports 23 CSSs which do not have any people in their succession bank for management positions, even if there are numerous departures annually.
Candidates “who are not qualified”
Faced with a lack of candidates interested in leading schools, some schools sometimes have no choice but to circumvent the standard that principals and vice-principals must have previously taught for several years. “We call on retirees or people who are not qualified to fill these positions because it is a need,” confides Carl Ouellet, who emphasizes the importance of lightening the workload of his members. in order to make their position more attractive.
“We would need hands, staff to carry out the more administrative tasks which currently fall to members of school management,” underlines Mr. Ouellet. It is certain that this will be part of our discussions with the government. »
Elizabeth Joyal also notes that the workload of school directors and their deputies has increased in recent years. “We now find ourselves at a high point,” says the vice-president of the FQDE, who notes in particular that the pandemic context, the implementation of the educational catch-up plan of the Minister of Education, Bernard Drainville, as well as the challenges caused by the shortage of teachers in Quebec have caused many headaches for the members of its federation.
However, “in our regulations, there is no notion of overtime nor that of schedule, which means that our task increases”, without our salary being increased, continues Ms.me Joyal. It therefore hopes that the possibility for its members to have access to remuneration for the additional time they devote to their work will be addressed in the upcoming talks with Quebec. Because, currently, its members work on average 54 hours per week, she indicates.
If Carl Ouellet emphasizes the importance of “getting the government to move quickly” to improve the working conditions of school principals, he remains realistic. “It is certain that we will not have signed a regulation by the end of the school year,” he agrees.