When students in the Vernon School District return to the classroom after spring break, they will also be returning to their regular recess break.
Superintendent Bev Rundell said with Thursday’s passing of Bill 22 bringing an end to the teachers’ job action, the district will restore a supervised recess break at all schools.
“At this point in time, we are led to believe that the teachers’ phase one job action activities will be over when schools return to session after spring break on April 2,” she said.
At the same time, all schools in the district will end their day 15 minutes later and students will arrive at their bus stop 15 minutes later at the end of the day.
“The school district will also issue an automated call-out reminder of this change, and if job action is still in place on April 2, the district will notify parents by automated call out, by information on our website and through Twitter,” said Rundell.
B.C.’s 41,000 teachers have been without a contract since June and began job action in September. Because teachers are considered an essential service, their job action has been limited to skipping administrative tasks, such as filling out report cards.
Earlier this month, the teachers won the Labour Relations Board’s approval for a full-scale walkout, which happened over three days last week.
Bill 22 bans further walk-outs, forcing teachers to resume their normal duties, imposing a six-month “cooling-off” period, and then sending the contract dispute to mediation.
Vernon Teachers’ Association president Bruce Cummings said his members are extremely disappointed in the legislation.
“But we were prepared for it, and this is what the government has been planning for a long time and in spite of what Mr. Abbott said they didn’t just draft this legislation over a weekend, I’m quite certain this is what they’ve been planning all along.
“We’re really disappointed that they can’t find themselves free to sit down and negotiate, but are taking things out of context and making them public instead of leaving them in the negotiation room.”
As the B.C. Teachers’ Federation gathers this weekend for its 96th annual general meeting, about 700 teachers will help shape the BCTF strategy to resist the legislation.
BCTF president Susan Lambert said the province’s 41,000 teachers “are determined to oppose this legislation,” and specific ideas will be discussed at the AGM.
In a number of districts, including Vernon, teachers will withdraw extracurricular activities, as one of the few options left to show their displeasure with the government.
“Teachers are determined to resist this bill and we will resist it in any way we can and keeping still within the law, but the problem is that there are unjust laws sometimes; we need to keep standing up for ourselves and keep standing up for students and basic democracy and what’s right and fair.”
Lambert said Bill 22 will have negative impacts in classrooms because it wipes out all current class-size and composition limits, places no limit on the number of students with special needs in any given class, and no limit on the number of students in Grades 4 to 12.
She said Bill 22 ignores the B.C. Supreme Court ruling last year, which found that contract-stripping legislation regarding class size and composition was unconstitutional.
“This legislation removes parts of Bills 27 and 28 that were found illegal, and then restores them word-for-word on the next page,” Lambert said. “Services to our students with special needs will be further diminished.”
Vernon trustees are throwing their support behind teachers. At this month’s district board meeting, trustees approved a motion to send a letter to Education Minister George Abbott requiring that he ensure an independent mediator be appointed that is in agreement by both the BCTF and the employer, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association.
As well, trustees approved a motion to send a letter to Abbott asking that all savings accrued from the three-day teachers’ strike stay in the district and to carry it over until next year.
“There has been about $33 million for the ministry that has been generated,” said board chairman Bill Turanski. “And the board feels that the money should stay in the district.”
During the 2005 teachers’ strike, the district did receive some funding, which was targeted and required to be spent within a certain time period.
“I want to thank the board for supporting the teachers in their letter writing, I approve what the board is saying to the government that we want that money,” said CUPE president Mark Olsen.
