With time running out for teachers and the government to negotiate a deal that would see students back in schools on Sept. 2, B.C. Minister of Education Peter Fassbender, government negotiator Peter Cameron and B.C. Teacher’s Federation President Jim Iker will meet at the B.C Legislature on Wednesday.
(A decision isn’t expected until after the News’ press deadline.)
While they would like to be back at work in September, Port Alberni teachers have been out on the picket lines again this week.
“Teachers remain hopeful that schools will open on Sept. 2,” said Alberni District Teachers’ Union President Ken Zydyk, “however, to date BCTF’s attempt to have government sit at the bargaining table with Vince Ready present and in mediation has not been successful.”
In a press release, SD70 Superintendent Greg Smyth also expressed his wish for schools to reopen on Sept. 2 and that he was “disappointed that the normally exciting beginning to a new school year is shrouded in uncertainty.”
While parents are concerned about whether or not schools will open on time, Zydyk said that he hasn’t noticed any enrolment differences so far.
“What we are hearing from parents is that they want their child to be in public school starting Sept. 2 and that is the wish of teachers too.”
While parents want their children in schools on time, Zydyk is enthused by the local support he’s seen.
“We’re sensing that there’s strong support from local parents for our fight to convince government that they should be improving the learning conditions for students, in particular around class size limits and guaranteed support levels for students with special limits.”
Much like in the rest of the province, Zydyk said that local classroom sizes have been increasing in recent years.
“We used to have our primary numbers lower than the legal amount but they’ve been creeping up to the max of 24 in some locations,” he said, adding that, “you have to be careful with averages because what the government likes to use for the educator to student ratio includes all administration [staff] that typically don’t teach full time.”
But the real issue for local teachers is the number of students with special needs in each classroom.
“We have some classrooms with as many as seven students on an Individualized Education Plan and there’s very little extra support for them.”
The lack of support for children with special needs means that all the children in the class suffer.
“Teachers are finding that it’s too hard with the higher class sizes and the diverse needs of students to meet the needs of all students.”
Zydyk also thinks that the recently announced $40 per day allowance for parents of children under 13 shows that the government isn’t serious about reaching a settlement.
“They would rather have children out of school than in school and they’re prepared to pay $12 million a day for children to be out of school,” he said.
If the strike does continue into the school year, parents can visit www.bcparentinfo.ca for more information and to register for the $40 per day allowance.
reporter@albernivalleynews.com
Twitter.com/AlberniNews
— With files from Jeff Nagel, Black Press
