Teachers attend seminar at HSD office

Plans are taking shape for hiring staff for the new Clearspring Middle School in Steinbach.  With less than a year to go before the school opens, Superintendent Ken Klassen says the process of sorting out who works where will soon begin.  "We're going to be hiring a Vice Principal for Clearspring Middle School in January.  And then in February we are going to try and place all the specialists in the five different schools in Steinbach so it all makes sense.  Music teachers phys ed teachers, some will have different job descriptions, some will stay some will go to a different school.  And then in March we will be setting the staff with the Steinbach teachers."

He explains they have established a starting and a fall back default.  "If they are in a K-4 position right now, the default is they will simply stay with their kids.  But that's not necessarily what will happen because they might ask to go up and teach grade five or six.  The grade five and six teachers is to move with their kids, but if there's positions open in grades three or four, they might get the chance to stay.  The teachers at Steinbach Junior High will either stay or go to the other school."

Klassen says he has already given teachers a survey to find out what their wishes are.  "And then we are going to balance the staffs.  We are going to be very careful that we don't end up with one veteran staff and one staff with new teachers or one strong staff and one not so strong staff.  When we put them together we are going to make sure each school has an equally strong staff."