Teachers agree to three-year deal

B.C. teachers voted 98 per cent in favour of a three-year contract that calls for two per cent wage increases each year, retroactive to July 2019.

Ratification for more than 45,000 teachers in the B.C. Teachers Federation took place over three days of online voting.

The vote drew 31,000 responses, between 70 and 75 per cent of the membership.

“I’m very pleased it has been accepted at the percentage that it was – 98 per cent voting in favour of this deal is great,” said Joanne Hapke, president of the Prince George District Teachers Association. “We’ve always had high voting returns and it’s wonderful on this deal that it came back so high in favour.”

The mediated agreement between the teachers federation and B.C. Public School Employers’ Association was achieved on March 26.

The new contract, from July 1, 2019-June 30, 2022 will give all teachers a two per cent raise for the next two years, and they will receive a two per cent raise retroactively to cover the first year of the new contract.

In School District 57, Prince George teacher salaries in the current school year range from $46,898 to $89,287.

Teachers on the top tier of the salary grid in each school district will also receive an additional one per cent increase in 2020.

“That is to address the retention piece, and the recruitment piece will be addressed by an increase for beginning teachers who accept a contract,” said Hapke, who is hopeful the new deal will also help B.C. to address its teacher shortage.

“Every one per cent makes it better, but certainly having a ratified deal that you didn’t have to go on strike to achieve does make it more palatable for teachers to move to our province.

“We’re not in labour unrest and we have a government that chose to work with us, so that is all favourable for anyone considering B.C. as a teaching option.”

There have been no layoffs since schools were closed on March 16 and Hapke said the district continues to hire teachers teaching on call (substitute teachers) for September.

The province also maintained ratios on non-enrolling specialist teachers and support staff (counsellors, teaching assistants, English language learning assistants) in the schools.

Those teacher ratio provisions were stripped by the Liberal provincial government in January 2002 when it legislated a three-year contract for B.C. teachers and werent reinstated until after a Supreme

Court of Canada decision in November 2016.

“We just got the language back and that’s the floor, that’s not the best that we can get for our students,” said Hapke.

“Those ratios were based on language negotiated in 1989 and our needs are greater in 2020. The kids deserve more supports than what our collective agreement allows them.”

The deal also entrenches a mediated process to support future bargaining sessions.

In 2014, when 31,000 of the province’s 41,000 teachers ratified a five-year contract, 86 per cent were in favour of the settlement.

Hapke said typically, in a non-COVID year, the district would know by now how many teachers it needs to hire for the upcoming school year.

Due to the pandemic crisis, that estimating was not done in April, as it usually is, and the PGDTA won’t know those numbers until next week at the earliest.

B.C. teachers have had five weeks to get used to the new reality of online/remote teaching, with no return to students to their classrooms foreseen for at least the next few weeks.

Three Prince George schools are open to younger children of frontline health-care workers and first responders.

Those schools will continue to provide care from 7 a.m.-7 p.m., staffed by educational assistants to help those students follow learning plans outlined by their teachers.

At-risk students in danger of falling behind academically or dropping out due to such factors as learning disabilities, disciplinary problems, health concerns, or unstable family situations have been returned to their schools this week and that limited migration back to classrooms will continue next week.

Students who require that additional support will be in school for two-hour sessions, twice a week.

“Based on the information we’ve received, classes as we knew it on March 13th will not be returning in the near future,” said Hapke.

“So we’re not going to have 20 to 30 students in every class from 8:30 – 2:30 every day in the near future, that’s not possible. No one is in their schools for 25 hours a week (for classroom instruction) at this time.

“Our district has already opened up the schools to some students, the ones that must be on-site for various reasons, but the majority of students are learning from their homes right now. The teachers are preparing the work and sending the work out to the parents and we are working with parents to help them deliver the curriculum.”