A Third of VSB Teachers Say They Plan to Leave in the Next Five Years

As teachers in the Vancouver school district help 52,000 students settle in to a new school year, about a third of them say they are planning to leave the district.

This spring, a survey of unionized district employees, including teachers, education assistants and other support staff, revealed 33 per cent of teachers said they were planning to leave the Vancouver district in the next five years. Of those, only 60 per cent planned to seek work in other districts.

The survey, which asked all members of Vancouver’s two teachers unions the same questions about leaving the district, mental health and work and whether they felt appreciated by their employer, was sent out by email in the spring. The Tyee asked both teachers unions how many responses they received. The Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators’ Society said 485 of its roughly 2,700 members responded, while 580 of the roughly 1,400 members of the Vancouver Secondary School Teachers' Association completed the survey.*

A press release issued by the unions revealed 75 per cent of teachers felt “undervalued and unrecognized by their employer.”

The vast majority said their job had a negative impact on their mental health and ability to work, with many citing an increased workload due to “increasingly complex classrooms” and students’ learning needs not being met.

When asked in an interview with The Tyee last week whether she’d seen the results of the survey, district superintendent Helen McGregor said, “I have not, actually.”

“Five years ago, 128 teachers decided to resign from the Vancouver School Board,” she said, adding that people resign for a variety of reasons, including retirement and relocation.

Last year just 65 teachers resigned, about 4.7 per cent of classroom teachers.

“I see that as a positive trend over time, and I think it shows the commitment the VSB has to really working and listening to stakeholder groups, employees and how we can do the work together,” she said.

The Tyee interviewed six teachers considering leaving the district, asking them why and what the district could change to keep them. We have kept their identities anonymous in this article, as teachers face discipline for criticizing their employers publicly. Some of the teachers interviewed were contacted by The Tyee, and others responded to a call put out by the union.

Teachers’ concerns included: insufficient investment in equity, anti-oppression and reconciliation supports for students, teachers and staff; the ongoing teacher shortage; senior administrators’ high salaries; disrespect and poor planning from human resources staff; and decreasing district transparency, particularly around staff contracts and the annual budgeting process.

Had their fill of ‘failures to fill’

Both the Vancouver Elementary and Adult Educators’ Society and the Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association say the city is experiencing a teacher shortage.

The district denies that Vancouver has a teacher shortage. But it won’t reveal the number of “failures to fill” — times when a teacher’s absence was not covered by a substitute.

In the public system, non-enrolling teachers, including teacher-librarians, special needs teachers and English language learning teachers, are not replaced until they have been absent for three days.

When substitute teachers are not available, non-enrolling teachers are expected to fill in for absent classroom teachers. Students they assist, like those learning English or who have disabilities and learning differences that require additional support, go without that support until a substitute teacher is found or the classroom teacher returns to work.

Teachers unions across B.C. say this is a common issue.

Failure to fill is one of the main reasons that one of the teachers The Tyee spoke with says he is considering leaving the district. The other is the Vancouver School Board’s response to the issue.

“There isn’t a partnership with the board to fix any of these problems. They’re so interested in covering their own back,” he said. At his school, he said, every day begins with a scramble to cover absent teachers.

Another teacher told The Tyee they felt that Vancouver is particularly bad at hiring and keeping teachers.

“The services that are available to teachers and students in other districts are much greater,” she said.

“When they keep cutting services and supports for students that need differentiated learning or neurodivergent students, what we see is a real challenge in terms of making education meaningful for all of our kids.”

Superintendent McGregor said the term “failure to fill” is not in teachers’ collective agreements.

“We monitor staffing daily, and the vast majority of absences are filled with on-call staff,” she said regarding absences of both teachers, who are mostly replaced by substitute teachers, and education assistants.

“Last year we had no classes that were missed or no facilities that were closed due to absenteeism or jobs. And I think that’s a significant win in Vancouver; it’s a complex time for recruitment and retention.”

However, McGregor did not dispute that non-enrolling teachers, who do not manage classrooms of their own, are also called on to cover for their absent colleagues.

“Every classroom teacher is covered who are with students, and we follow the collective agreement processes for covering all staff,” she said.

The Tyee could not find language in either the secondary or the elementary teachers’ collective agreements with the district about non-enrolling teachers filling in for their absent classroom teacher colleagues. Or about who fills in when a non-enrolling teacher is absent.

We reached out to the district for clarification, and a spokesperson confirmed the “long-standing practice” of not replacing non-enrolling teachers until they have been absent for three days.

“At secondary schools, where teachers typically teach a number of blocks (therefore not all periods/classes), they may be reassigned to cover another teacher’s class who is absent that day,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to The Tyee.

“I think the reference [McGregor] made was likely in general regarding collective agreement language.”

Few supports for students’ inclusion, diversity of needs

More than half of the six teachers The Tyee interviewed for this piece expressed concern over what they saw as a lack of equity and anti-oppression support for students and teachers based on their ability, race, Indigeneity, sexuality and gender identities.

The Vancouver School Board has a history of publicly supporting anti-racism, LGBTQ2S+ rights, kids with disabilities and the success of Indigenous students.

But practical supports and resources for students and teachers are deficient in schools, teachers told The Tyee.

“There’s a lot of lip service that goes on, and not a lot of walking the talk,” a teacher who has worked in Vancouver for over a decade told The Tyee.

Another teacher told The Tyee the district doesn’t take disagreements between teachers over equity issues, such as supporting LGBTQ2S+ students, seriously. Instead they are dismissed as “collegial disagreements” to be worked out between the educators.

One teacher noted that he felt pressure from teachers who support Zionism in relation to Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza, particularly when it comes to whether teachers should be covering the Nakba in class.

Combined with the growing threat of fascism here and abroad, not everyone feels safe in Vancouver schools, he said.

“Not all students feel like they belong, and unfortunately certain ideologies and politics influence decisions, and silence is violence if the board doesn’t say anything,” he said.

“If the school board isn’t making a push for anti-oppressive stuff, then what does that say?”

McGregor disagreed with these teachers’ assessments, citing the positive impact “of the collective work” she has personally witnessed in schools.

This includes, but is not limited to, developing courses with students on Filipino language and culture and on B.C. African-descent history; materials and resource guides for LGBTQ2S+ and Indigenous education and supports; mandatory equity and anti-oppression training for all employees; and inviting representatives of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) First Nations, on whose unceded lands the district operates, to be present at district standing committee meetings.

“We have a real focus on equity, anti-oppression and reconciliation,” McGregor said, noting both the equity and anti-oppression and the Indigenous education portfolios are overseen by district directors of instruction.

“Our education plan is deeply, deeply connected to equity and anti-oppression, with an equity statement and goals around removing barriers to success for students.”

Lack of transparency and agency in top-level decision-making

A teacher who has taught in Vancouver for over 20 years told The Tyee she’s “always considering leaving” the district.

“That pay increase we just got, it does help,” she said. “That’s the thing that keeps me.”

But it doesn’t feel like the district, at least at senior management levels, listens to teachers or takes their experience and expertise seriously, she said.

She cited the district’s budget survey for teachers sent out last spring, a month and a half into the school board’s budgeting process.

“I wish... we could actually influence some of the decisions made [at the] top. Because it really just seems performative when they ask us about our opinion,” she said.

“There’s a lot of people teaching on the frontlines, and they know what’s best for kids. I know for sure that people in senior management don’t.”

Several teachers mentioned they believe there are too many senior management positions, with too-high salaries, for the district’s size.

McGregor said the number of senior administration positions has not changed in at least seven years.

Teachers told The Tyee it’s harder than it used to be to find district staffers’ names, job titles, responsibilities and contact info.

The district’s four associate superintendents were once well known by teachers and students alike, one teacher told us, because they would visit classrooms on a regular basis.

“Now, not only do we not know who those people are, we’ve never seen them. I don’t know what they’re doing, but they’re collecting these great big salaries,” she said.

McGregor told The Tyee she was surprised teachers felt this way, adding that she has visited every school and program since she became superintendent in January 2022.

“Our directors of instruction are the main connection to schools. And they are in the schools frequently,” she said.

“Principals, directors of instruction are really the conduit for the supports across the district. And if we receive feedback around communication and who people are, I think that’s always good to hear what people have to say and how we might be able to address it.”

During an April 17 board meeting, a spokesperson for International Union of Operating Engineers Local 963, which represents building engineers, custodians and other non-educator support staff in the district, claimed the Office of the Superintendent’s costs had increased by 194 per cent to $641,939 in 2023 from $218,509 in 2008.

Senior executive compensation overall, including the superintendent, increased by 131 per cent during that time period, to $2.2 million in 2023 from $961,282 in 2008. Student enrolment decreased during that time period, from the peak of just under 60,000 students in 2009-10 to less than 53,000 last year.

Cumulative inflation during that period increased by less than 40 per cent.

McGregor, who started her role in 2022, said she could not comment on what happened in her office before she was appointed.

However, she said salaries for senior administrators — the superintendent, secretary-treasurer, four associate superintendents and the executive directors of finance and employee services — are within the parameters outlined by the BC Public School Employers’ Association and the Public Sector Employers’ Council Secretariat.

“And they approve them,” she said, adding that only four per cent of the district’s budget last year went to non-unionized or exempt staff salaries.

What the district can do

The Tyee asked each teacher for one thing the district could change this year that would help change their minds about leaving Vancouver’s public schools.

One teacher said the implementation of the in-school cellphone ban for students could make or break their future in the district — particularly regarding how effective principals will be at enforcing the ban, including removing phones from students who continue to break the rules.

Another suggested reforming human resources and hiring staff familiar with best practices in education and learning who understand teachers’ roles and stresses and make efforts to accommodate health needs.

They also echoed a fellow teacher’s call for greater investment in anti-racism and anti-oppression support, programs and education for teachers and students.

One teacher wanted to see the district stop micromanaging teachers; two more wanted better communication and leadership from school and district administrators — including, from the district, an acknowledgment of issues like failure to fill.

“Be transparent: ‘It’s difficult to run this system, it’s not going great. Here are the real issues we’re facing, here is the data we have about it,’ instead of protecting their own backs,” he said.

“I think people are going to lose confidence in public school, and they’re not going to choose to send their kids to public school,” a teacher told The Tyee.

McGregor said the district is always open and interested in receiving feedback from district staff.

“When you have the responsibility for 52,000 students every single day — learning, their well-being, opportunities for the future and for them to flourish — just my deep appreciation,” she said. “It doesn’t happen alone; it happens with so many people working together, learning together.”

* Story updated on Sept. 17 at 11:52 a.m. to include additional information about how many members of the Vancouver Secondary School Teachers' Association completed the survey.