CTR schools celebrating work of NCCS staff

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

Christ the Redeemer (CTR) Catholic schools are celebrating the Non-Certified Classroom Supervisors (NCCS) who have become a valuable asset to keeping schools open and students learning in person.

The NCCS were highlighted during the CTR board meeting near the end of January, as having helped to fill a significant need for substitute teachers due to staff shortages.

According to Vincent Behm, deputy superintendent of schools, NCCS have been utilized by the school board for nearly five years, though prior to the pandemic, the extent was not nearly as prolific.

“They’re not teachers, so they’re not able to teach, instruct, or assess, but they’re able to make sure that it’s a safe, positive learning environment and hand out materials that the teacher has left for the class,” said Behm.

“The teachers leave really self-directed learning plans for the students, so the NCCS will hand out those materials. Because they work in our schools often, they understand the rules, the routines, the positive classroom and school culture.”

A NCCS is brought in to oversee a classroom environment when no substitute teacher is available to direct the class while the regular teacher is away.

Generally, when an NCCS is called in to supervise a class, the students will be reviewing content or completing independent learning. 

“We always prefer to have a substitute teacher when they’re available, because they’re able to fulfil all the roles of a teacher, but from time to time, and especially in some of our communities where there’s not a lot of substitute teachers who live there, we rely on (NCCS) more often,” said Behm.

“Using our NCCS’s is a way that we’ve been able to keep our schools open and operational, because we’ve not faced the staffing shortages that we were perhaps concerned that we would.”

He added NCCS have been utilized more often over the last several months due to many regular staff being out of the building for varying purposes. Behm did not specify the reasons for regular staff absences.

CTR utilizes both internal and external NCCS’s. Internal NCCS’s are often staff and educational assistants who work within the facility but usually in other capacities and an external NCCS are generally people who have experience and education working with youth in other capacities.

“It’s really a celebration that we’ve been able to keep our schools open without asking our teachers or administrators to cover too many classes and keep our schools operational,” said Behm.

“All of our schools have NCCS’s available to them. Before the pandemic, only some of them would rely on them occasionally, but especially since the last wave of the pandemic, most, if not all have relied on NCCS’s.”

Though he specified there is no replacement for a substitute teacher, having the NCCS available as a resource allows schools to remain open in person along with filling staffing gaps when necessary.