Peace River region local profile: Opportunity and innovation rooted in community
- syoung679
- 4 hours ago
- 6 min read
The Peace River region of BC is home to a small percentage of the province’s teachers, but geographically the region is sizable. Its schools are spread out over hundreds of kilometres in BC’s northeast, near the Alberta border. The region is so large geographically, it actually consists of two locals: the Peace River North Teachers’ Association (PRNTA), which covers Fort St. John and the surrounding communities to the north and west, some of them more than 100 km away from the local office in Fort St. John; and the Peace River South Teachers’ Association (PRSTA), which includes Dawson Creek, Tumbler Ridge, and Chetwynd.
The region is undeniably beautiful. Wooded parks with networks of trails are easily accessible from every community, and the river and surrounding lakes provide a stunning backdrop for outdoor activities like fishing, hunting, and snowshoeing. But winters can be long and harsh. And with only one airport offering commercial flights in the region, some of the communities are isolated and remote.
“It takes some resilience and grit to live up here,” said Crystal Dutchak, a teacher who has lived in Fort St. John for most of her life. “But it’s a great place to be.”
When asked what keeps them in the region, every teacher interviewed said it’s the community.
Building a strong sense of community isn’t easy, and it certainly takes time, but the PRNTA and the PRSTA seem to have the formula down. As Elaine Fitzpatrick, PRSTA Local President, put it, you just need to “make sure every new member is welcomed, create plenty of opportunity to socialize in person, and always provide food.”
Elaine has taken on a personal responsibility to make sure members new to her local feel supported and welcomed. She reaches out quickly when she finds out a new teacher is moving to her local to help them get set up in the community. Sometimes that means helping them find housing or driving them to purchase a vehicle after they arrive.
Shindy Pletzer is a teacher who moved to Chetwynd two years ago, because the region provided employment opportunities for her family members in the resource industries as well affordable homes. She noted that “right off the bat, Elaine knew me by name and came and checked in on me,” an experience that contributed to her feeling supported.
Early in the school year, the PRSTA sets up new teacher orientation where they can meet colleagues from the district and take home a welcome package that includes teaching resources, books, and, as needed, extension cords to plug in block heaters for their vehicles.
But of course, community is not built in a day. The outreach, support, and friendliness only grow from the initial orientation through social events and mentorship opportunities.
The PRNTA is proud of the mentorship program they have built up over the years. New teachers (or new-to-the-role teachers) are paired with experienced teachers and supported in collaborating and learning from each other. “It shows new teachers that someone is watching out for you; you’re not left alone to flounder in those first few years that can be the most challenging,” said Tyler Morrison, PRNTA Vice-President and a mentor in the local program.
The mentorship program is just one part of the professional development (PD) on offer in the Peace River region. The districts and locals collaborate to put on numerous workshops, conferences, and learning opportunities for teachers.
One locally specific opportunity is the Indigenous Learning Day that takes place in Peace River North every year. Elders and community members from the local First Nations put on workshops covering topics including reconciliation, storytelling, art techniques, and land-based learning. The locally specific workshops are combined with keynote presentations from nationally acclaimed speakers, including Niigaan Sinclair.
Members in both locals are also supported to exercise their professional autonomy in pursuing professional development outside of local offerings.
“We see local specialist associations forming and applying for funding to host their own PD, we also see members using their PD funds to attend larger conferences in the south or take on learning that will support the needs of their students,” said Donna Bulmer, PRNTA Local President, who is proud of all that her local has achieved for PD in the collective agreement over the past several decades.
For Crystal, the flexibility to pursue PD that is relevant to your teaching allowed her to take training on Smart Learning, a framework to help deepen student thinking using metacognitive skills. She is now a Smart Learning facilitator who shares her learning with her colleagues to support them in implementing scaffolded learning using the framework.
In both locals, through positive working relationships with the districts, teachers’ professional autonomy is supported and upheld.
For Fort St. John teacher Ryan Windhorst, professional autonomy has given him the freedom to pursue unique learning activities for his students, such as making leather goods in his outdoor education class. This very popular class activity gives students the opportunity to work with leather to craft mittens, saddle bags, or knife sheaths using techniques pioneered by Indigenous Peoples.
Since there is no provincial outdoor education curriculum, the outdoor educators from different grade levels collaborate to ensure their curriculums complement each other without repetition.
“If you have an idea and a plan in place, people will support you,” said Ryan.
The opportunities for growth in the Peace River region are unique. The supportive atmosphere enables teachers to take on leadership roles. The collaborative culture allows teachers to work with colleagues across grade levels and subject matter. And teachers can easily try out different teaching positions.
Susie Hall, a Dawson Creek teacher who moved from Ontario six years ago, has had an opportunity to take on teaching roles that allowed her to grow as a professional. Her current role is literacy co-ordinator in the district.
Both Peace River districts have a strong focus on literacy education, combining new literacy education programs with tried and trusted literacy strategies.
Susie’s warm welcome from the staff rep at her first school inspired her to take on a staff rep position at her next school. Now she is a local representative and stays involved in her local union to advocate for her colleagues.
One of the biggest challenges these local unions face is the teacher shortage. While recruitment and retention challenges exist in nearly every district across the province, they’re felt more acutely in the Peace River region.
The local presidents work hard to help new teachers build community, and the districts are investing into mentorship and PD with hopes that these things will help teachers feel successful and connected and, in turn, stay in the community.
However, the shortage is so severe that there are dozens of uncertified teachers working on letters of permission in both school districts. The locals do their best to support uncertified teachers through training and workshops, but these are no replacement for teacher education programs.
The district is testing out hiring bonuses as a way to incentivize certified teachers to move north. This solution, however, is inequitable.
“We need to support and motivate people to enter into teacher training programs,” said Elaine, who sees forgivable student loans as a more equitable and sustainable solution that would help address the problem.
The TTOC list is also chronically understaffed in the region. Teachers often feel guilty taking a sick day because they know an unfilled absence negatively affects the entire school—both staff and students. This contributes to teacher burnout and ultimately works against all the efforts undertaken by the local and district to retain teachers. The lack of TTOCs also means that teachers aren’t able to take remedy time.
These issues leave mid-career teachers feeling the most devalued. They were not offered hiring bonuses when they started out, but are now facing an increased workload on top of taking on informal and unrecognized mentorship to support their uncertified colleagues.
But despite the challenges, many of the teachers interviewed said there’s nowhere else they’d rather be.
“Life is simplified,” said Shindy. “And the community is welcoming.”
The affordability in the region combined with the easy access to nature and convenience of short commutes are inviting. The community values and care that residents show for one another help them feel connected and build belonging.
“I know all my neighbours and colleagues, and these are good people,” said Ryan. “It’s the village that’s helping raise my kids.”
