School District 60 hopes to receive up to $60K in pre-employment hiring incentives

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The School District 60 (SD60) hopes to receive up to $60,000 towards pre-employment hiring incentives.

At the recent School District 60 board meeting on April 20th, the Superintendent’s report for April 2026, it said that $500,000 has been confirmed for the 2026-2027 school year from the Ministry of Education and Child Care. 

Of the $500,000, SD60 hopes to receive between $40,000 and $60,000 in pre-employment hiring incentives, said Stephen Petrucci, superintendent of SD60. 

“About 90 per cent of that [$500,000] is generally allocated to northern school districts,” he said. 

Last year, the district received around $40,000 to $50,000, which it used towards specific positions.

He noted: “For some of our rural schools, like Wonowon (Elementary School) and Upper Halfway School and even Hudson’s Hope school, we were able to attach hiring incentives, as much as $15,000 for a pre-employment hiring.” 

Hiring incentives can range from $5,000 to $15,000, depending on how rural the school is. 

Petrucci believes these hiring incentives have made a concrete impact over the last three years. 

“We’ve been able to hire certified teachers in locations where we have not had certified teachers before,” he added. 

Once the district learns what funding it will receive in the next few weeks, it will start posting for teachers. 

In addition, there will be 14 bursaries each worth $18,000 through the Return of Service Pilot program, funded by the Ministry of Education and Child Care, for students entering the workforce. 

“Students in their last year of their education program can apply for that money and in return, they agree to sign a contract with one of five northern school districts for three years,” he explained. “So that’s great not only for hiring certified teachers, but also that helps with retention, because if they’re with us for three years, there’s a much stronger chance that they’ll stay.” 

SD60 is one of the five pilot districts in the province to benefit from this initiative, and Petrucci hopes to see it expand every year. 

Also, starting this September, districts will be able to extend Letter of Permission (LOP) terms from one year to three years. 

When asked how this will benefit SD60, Petrucci said: “This will be very helpful because our human resources, right now, has to renew and post each of those positions each year.” 

He believes it will provide stability not only for the school district in terms of HR processes but also predictability for teachers on letters of permission. 

“This initiative and LOPs will not displace or affect any certified teacher position,” he noted. 

“Teachers that are certified always will have authority in terms of the hiring process. This is just in those various particular cases where we are not able to find a certified teacher.” 

Petrucci said the district’s overall retention rate is pretty good. 

“We [are] trying to improve retention around a couple of areas, one is where we offer really extensive professional development for our teachers, not only through the local union but also the Learning Services Department at the school district,” he said. 

This includes summer courses and workshops for new teachers as well as teachers on letters of permission, support with literacy and numeracy programming. 

Another key aspect to retention is “plugging into the community.” 

“When people plug in and they get involved locally, there is a much higher probability of them staying in this area,” he said.