Cariboo Chilcotin Teachers Association (CCTA) president Murray Helmer attended the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) annual general meeting and conference in Vancouver, March 18-21, and gives a view of how things went from a local perspective.
Much of the conference discussions surrounded the Supreme Court ruling and how to ensure the contract language is restored to pre-2002 levels when it was removed in the first place 15 years ago, he explains.
“One of the major areas is just ensuring that, starting in September, all school districts are making sure that they have full implementation of all the class size language and that there is a full compliment of non-enrolling positions, as per the language that has been restored.”
As of March 24, the school districts have also now learned how much funding the province will be providing to them from the recently announced Classroom Enhancement Fund boost of $150 million, which in addition to the $180 million announced in this year’s budget, brings the total to $330 million.
“In the Cariboo-Chilcotin, [School District #27] will be receiving just over $2.5 million, and that will be in place to ensure we don’t have class size issues or classroom composition problems heading into September.”
However, Helmer says the teachers also talked about the other part of that issue, which is making sure that the definitions for students with special needs remain firm.
“What happened last time, when this language was first negotiated, is the government started redefining what a special needs student was, and a lot of the students who had been previously diagnosed had those diagnoses revoked, or no longer coded as special needs.”
The “major push here” is to ensure that not only do all children get tested who require testing, but also that those children’s diagnoses remain, those definitions remain firm and those services are provided in public schools across B.C., he explains.
Helmer adds much of the contract language is now out of date, and doesn’t reflect the realities of today’s classroom instruction under the new judgment and agreement.
At the CCTA/SD27 level, he expects a lot of discussions will probably be held about the definitions of these terms, such as whether a rehabilitation class will be in what is now called its alternate program.
“There is supposed to be a committee struck to hash that out provincially, and I think that would probably be a more consistent application throughout the province.”
BCTF president Glen Hansman, first vice-president Teri Mooring of Quesnel and second vice-president Clint Johnson of Chilliwack have all been returned to their positions by popular vote, he adds.
“We did hear from a lot of other representatives of labour unions outside of education … from across Canada, who had similar issues with their governments – where their governments negotiate contracts and then they legislate over what had been negotiated.”
Helmer adds he was impressed to be among his fellow BCTF members as they all heard how the Supreme Court rulings they initiated in B.C. are an important victory.
They learned from their public employee peers how strategies have since been applied across the country, and will be well into the future, he explains, adding this is a positive move for both negotiating government contracts and in defining how public labour relations unfold.
