Minister, union at odds over makeup of panel

Saskatchewan’s education minister is defending his decision to strike a committee aimed at solving classroom issues that includes a former Saskatchewan Party candidate but no practising teachers — which the Saskatchewan NDP deemed “ridiculous.”

Education Minister Gord Wyant noted six of the eight committee members are former members of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF), and Thomas Sierzycki, who lost in the 2016 election, also has an education degree.

Opposition finance critic Trent Wotherspoon disagreed, telling reporters that seeing “someone with deep ties to the Sask. Party there while teachers are being shut out doesn’t speak well to their approach to the education sector.”

Speaking to reporters after question period, Wyant said there is also an open invitation to the STF to participate in the committee, and that the position will remain open should the federation representing the province’s 13,500 teachers change its mind.

“We’re very anxious to have the voice of current teachers on the committee,” Wyant said, adding that he has been approached by STF members who are keen to participate, and urged that they be able to do so without fear of reprimand.

STF president Patrick Maze said it was offside for Wyant to suggest that the federation’s executive would discipline any teacher. Those processes are based on complaints, and are adjudicated by a committee entirely separate from the STF’S political side, he continued.

“I would find it highly unusual for any member to think that they would be able to solve class size and composition through a committee that is clearly being set up to undermine collective bargaining,” Maze said.

The STF has refused to take part in the process on the grounds that a mechanism for ensuring classrooms have adequate resources should be included in its next collective agreement — a sticking point in stalled negotiations.

Wyant has said repeatedly that it won’t happen, on the basis that such measures have caused chaos elsewhere; he has said he launched the committee as a different means of addressing what everyone involved acknowledges is a problem.

Large class sizes, and especially classrooms that include multiple students with additional needs or who require extra assistance, are a challenge for teachers and schools across the province.

Citing earlier examples of committees whose work went nowhere, the NDP and STF have panned the idea, but Wyant has said he hopes its work will be finished by spring, opening the door to funding in the 2020-21 budget.

After releasing the committee’s terms of reference earlier this month, Wyant confirmed its membership on Thursday. It includes Sierzycki, who now works in the Ministry of Education, as well as two other ministry employees, Angela Pinay and Lynn Harper-harris. It also includes Saskatchewan School Boards Association president Shawn Davidson. U of S College of Education Dean Michelle Prytula, parent and former school superintendent Brian Lach and Prairie Valley School Division community co-ordinator Amy Redding are members-at-large, the province said.

Education policy expert Andy Hargreaves is also set to assist the committee in its work. According to the province, Hargreaves has offered his services at no cost while other committee members will receive the public service per diem and travel rates. With files from