Sarah Rennie – LJI reporter

With just under a week remaining before students return to class, the New Frontiers School Board has filled all 400 of its available teaching positions, making it the only service centre or board not looking to hire in the Montérégie.

“We are doing great in terms of what our needs are for the startup of the school year, both on the adult and the youth side,” said the NFSB’s director general, Mike Helm. The board still has some vacant positions, and schools may be looking to fill additional resource or support roles, he explained, but hiring is being closely monitored due to budget reductions and restrictions.

“For our support staff starting out right now, we are in very good shape,” Helm confirmed. “But we have to take it case by case as we move forward,” he cautioned, noting the board must maintain a balanced budget and stay within its allocated quota for full-time equivalent positions (ETCs).

According to the provincial government’s education dashboard, the Centre de Services Scolaires de la Vallée-des-Tisserands was short around 15 teachers out of 883 positions when the system was last updated on August 18. The data on available posts for support staff and educational professionals was not available as of press time.

Overall, the NFSB is starting the year with budget compressions that amount to around $800,000, including the $511,000 carried over from last winter and $280,000 from reductions announced in the spring. As a result, the school board is aiming to reduce travel expenses, professional development costs, and overtime hours to recuperate these funds. This involves monitoring any activities and initiatives that take place throughout the year that require overtime to be paid. “We need to take that inventory and make the best decisions for each of our communities,” said Helm, before emphasizing the goal is to reduce but not eliminate overtime work.

According to Helm the budget is manageable at this time, but he acknowledged the situation could change rapidly if there are sudden needs to be met within any of the schools. “Right now, we are looking at a balanced budget, and we have put controls in place to monitor our ETCs,” he said.

Helm jokingly referred to the past few months as a working summer, while maintaining that many employees from schools and centres enjoyed the time away and are ready for the start of the year. “We have a lot of great initiatives that came out of last year that we are moving forward with,” he explained.

“We need to be focused on positive elements,” said Helm, noting that this came up during the first meeting with school administrators last week. “Yes, we have these restrictions that we are dealing with, and we need to take things one step at a time, but we can’t dwell in the negative,” he added. “We need to do what is best for our students and their success!” he exclaimed, saying he is feeling optimistic heading into 2025-2026.