The country’s schools, modern problems and the long term of helping children
Sophie Wheeler was riding a snowplow during an early March snowstorm when slush pushed her compact car back into her lane.
It’s 7:30 a.m. when she leaves Medicine Hat for Ouen, a 190-kilometre drive she makes three times a week, part of a new effort to bring aid to some of Alberta’s most remote schools.
This distance does not diminish the challenges students experience there – bullying, social-emotional issues, anxiety, depression, aggression, self-harm and even suicidal thoughts. these are done increasing since the pandemic.
“I think it’s definitely a misconception that everything is easier (for kids in rural areas),” Wheeler said, leaning forward in the driver’s seat, his eyes fixed on the road.
“It’s just the way schools deal with it is a little different.”
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Rural complexity requires ‘creative’ strategies
Teachers in schools across Alberta are reporting increased complexity in their classrooms — more students who need more support to thrive, or who are struggling with interpersonal and other challenges since the pandemic.
The problems are not isolated to rural Alberta, but there must be solutions.
In this case, it’s a roving team of experts, one of whom covers 1,200 kilometers a week on the roads.
In southeastern Alberta, the Prairie Rose School Division stretches 250 kilometers north of the Montana border to Oyen, with 18 town schools, as well as 18 more schools in Hutterite colonies. A land of farmers and cattle grazing leases and wind turbines, it’s also as close to Saskatoon as it is to Calgary.
The population is so small that the approximately 5,000 people living within 100 kilometers of Ouen would not fill the lower bowl of Saddledome.
Prairie Rose officials began seeing an increase in complexity and aggressive behavior in students five years ago, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Working for a school district in a remote area, they knew community members would come to them for help. There is no other help nearby.
“It’s hard to access services like physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health, physical therapists, occupational therapists,” said Lisa Lindsey, assistant superintendent of Prairie Rose. “And so we, the schools, in those municipalities, are everything to all of us.”
The district increased the size of its wellness team to 10 positions two years ago and attempted to hire a counselor for Onyen who lives in the area.
But without any qualified applicants, it redefined the position as a hybrid traveling counselor, and Wheeler was appointed last fall.
Wheeler lives in Medicine Hat. His route to Oyen parallels the Saskatchewan border, a two-lane highway filled with bad patches of cellphone service.
On the day CBC News joined him, Wheeler arrived late to Owen Public School, slowed by whiteout conditions, and stopped to look at a division bus that had hit a ditch.
She checks in with the staff, then heads to South Central High School, located next to a farm equipment dealership two blocks away. For teenagers heading to class, cowboy boots are as common as sneakers, as well as boot-cut jeans and ballcaps from tractor brands and seed distributors.
High school principal Dawn Pierce lives two minutes from downtown, but has a sofa bed in her office in case roads are closed. Each student traveling on the bus is paired with a city child or billet family to have a place to stay during a blizzard.
Pearce and Wheeler chat about specific students. Wheeler tells the principal that there is a different story behind why a child is struggling, and they make plans to speak again.
Wheeler greets children by name as she walks down the hall.
The school serves children with all types of needs in a single classroom; A student who cannot speak eats his lunch with a colleague in the cafeteria. Wheeler welcomed him with a wave.
In an average day, Wheeler meets with students face-to-face – or virtually as needed – to discuss issues ranging from friendship problems to self-harm, or to practice coping strategies. She also connects parents with additional support and provides advice to teachers.
Prairie Rose students have access to a classroom specifically focused on mental health programming, but only in Medicine Hat.
“Some days you feel like I could spend every day here,” Wheeler said.
Afterward, she said, the 10-person Prairie Rose Wellness team will meet to provide information, talk through problems, share successes and support each other.
“It can be overwhelming work.”
Colleagues walking with Wheeler behind rows of graduation photos. The principal has spent his 30-year career in the Oyen area. She talks proudly about the graduates, a new baseball academy and the school’s location at the center of the community.
Pierce says the school has benefited from the division’s focus on adding educational assistants — there are four for South Central High School’s student population of about 200 — and now Wheeler and the wellness counselors add “another set of eyes.”
“Every minute she’s in this building, there’s a long line of students who want to meet her,” Pierce said. “He has sparked a new interest this year, and students are seeking him out.
“We could use more of it.”
CBC survey finds rural teachers burn out trying to handle complex classrooms
When CBC News surveyed teachers across the province in January, more than 400 of the 6,000 respondents were from rural and remote areas. They told a story similar to their urban counterparts of struggling to maintain classrooms and meet all the needs of their students.
“I love all my kids, but I’m tired of trying to deal with everything at once,” wrote a rural teacher from an unnamed district.
Another rural teacher wrote, “Raising my salary will not increase efficiency or time.” “It’s not sustainable.”
In these rural and remote areas, teachers often describe small classes – 20 students or less – but with Higher percentage of children who require dedicated attention or who are disruptive.
Also, many teach split classes, which requires them to cover multiple grades and provincial curriculum outcomes in one class.
Teachers stressed the need to negotiate for more support to deal with this complexity.
New provincial complexity teams will not reach Oyen
After the strike, the province announced $143 million Funding for complexity teams – One teacher and two educational assistants for approximately 500 primary schools highest level of complexity.
Prairie Rose received funding for a team for a school near Medicine Hat. But that doesn’t help its smaller rural schools, so the division is trying to replicate the “complex team” concept in a rotating format available to more than one school.
Recruitment will be a challenge, as it is for employers across the sector – not just schools. The municipality is currently running an advertising campaign for teachers, as well as nurses, to work at the Big Country Hospital in Oyen. The 10-bed facility is slated to close sometime in 2023 due to staff shortages.
The division recently spent two years advertising for a position like Wheeler’s, and there will be competition with school boards across the province as each tries to recruit for new teams.
“Recruiting is probably the biggest hurdle right now,” said Lindsey, assistant superintendent at Prairie Rose. “I think if we could find people, we would fund it (a roving team), especially in our northern communities where we are seeing a significant increase in complexity.”
Ouen is a small town where children grow up feeling like all the adults around them know them. This increases the feeling of belonging. It can be difficult to attract new people to a location so far from the main centres, but people who grow up here tend to stay here.
Elementary school principal Dean Smigelsky grew up in a small village north of Oyen, and returned to the city to teach and raise her family.
“I’m so grateful for it every day,” he said, describing the community as close-knit with supportive families.
Contemplating the long drive home
At the end of the school day in Oyen, students shovel snow from their trucks or head out for long bus rides.
Both sides of a budding high school romance take a bus, but in different directions. They’re separated by hours, with no real opportunities to hang out away from school.
“There is a high proportion of social isolation among our rural children,” Wheeler said. “They rely heavily on the phone to communicate with friends, which…can bring connection but does not replace in-person connections.”
For children with responsibilities at home and farm work, the bus ride is also a chance to complete homework and spend some free time.
Without reliable cell service on her commute home, Wheeler usually downloads and listens to course materials for her master’s degree in counseling.
Despite all the driving, it’s a job she enjoys.
“I like it,” she said. “You really get to see the kids authentically – their personalities – and I see a lot of resiliency in these kids.
“To see what these kids are doing and (still) coming to school every day…it’s rewarding.”
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