Exams, marks deemed essential
Full strike may go ahead next week
Provincial exams for grades 10 to 12 and final marks for Grade 12s will go ahead, but summer school remains up in the air.
The Labour Relations Board ruled Thursday that those exams and marks are essential services, although the details will have to be ironed out by school districts.
The LRB said school districts will need to determine the number of teachers necessary to supervise provincial exams and enter final grades, with an effort to minimize the number required. The LRB ruling also prevents teachers from picketing in front of entrances designated for students to get to exams and says it is essential that staff and teachers determine which students should be designated as special needs for the fall.
While the employer has said they will lift the lockout to allow summer school to proceed, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation has only said they remain committed to getting a deal by the end of June, not saying what will happen if June 30 passes without a deal.
There is no indication if pickets would continue or if summer schools would be shut down.
Both sides have said they will negotiate throughout the weekend.
The strike notice and the LRB ruling have left school districts scrambling to figure out how they will wrap up the year with all of the uncertainty.
Vancouver school board chairwoman Patti Bacchus said June is always busy, but the labour strife is overloading management as they grapple with how to get exams and report cards done, shut down for summer, plan for summer school and plan for fall.
In regards to report cards, the essential services ruling only addresses final grades for Grade 12 students. Bacchus said simplified report cards for elementary students might be a possibility and Fassbender said since students have already completed most of the required work, it might be possible to get final grades to parents, but he wasn’t sure how it would happen.
Unless a deal is reached this weekend, B. C. teachers will begin a full- scale strike on Tuesday, with an all- day, off- site “study session” planned for Monday, B. C. Teachers’ Federation president Jim Iker said Thursday.
“We hope that escalation can actually be avoided,” Iker said, adding that the teachers have revised their wage proposal and hope to be studying a settlement deal on Monday.
“I am hopeful. We are going to work as hard as we can to make the movements that we need to make and get a deal,” Iker said. “Let’s get the deal this weekend and there won’t be a walkout.”
Iker would not give the details of the teachers’ revised wage offer, but said teachers would be available to bargain all weekend, in hopes of a deal.
Like Iker, Education Minister Peter Fassbender said the government is prepared to bargain 24- 7 to reach a deal. He also said he is “optimistic” about the BCTF’s revised proposal.
Premier Christy Clark wants a negotiated settlement, Fassbender said, adding that a facilitator is now “playing an enhanced role in bargaining.”
“Our main focus though, is to get to an agreement by June 30, 2014, and put this disruption behind us,” Fassbender said. “I know everyone involved wants to head into the summer with the assurance that our education system is on a path to long- term stability and focused on student outcomes.”
Clark told reporters in Vancouver that she is pleased both sides are going to bargain over the weekend.
“I don’t want to have a false sense of optimism about that, but I have always said the only way we are going to get to an agreement is if the parties come to the table willing to talk, ready to bargain, and I think it’s really good news there is a revised offer on the table and time set aside to really really bargain hard,” Clark said. “You never know, if they sit and really work at it hard with a real will to get there they could have an agreement by the end of the weekend. ... If they do then it will mean parents and their kids don’t have to worry about a strike next week. And that is my wish.”
The study session planned for Monday falls under the rotating strikes of stage two of the job action, which allowed for schools to be closed one day each week, Iker said. As such, it only requires 48 hours notice, unlike the fullscale strike, which requires 72 hours notice, he said. Teachers will not be paid during Monday’s job action, and they will review the BCTF’s bargaining package during that time, BCTF said.
The Labour Relations Board referred to Monday as a one- day rotating strike in its ruling.
Students at Richmond’s two year- round elementary schools have been told to bring all of their belongings home Friday in case the strike action continues past the end of June.
In Cariboo- Chilcotin, the 28 elementary students who attend classes until July 24 on a socalled balanced calendar will be told to treat Friday as the last day of school, district superintendent Mark Thiessen said.
“We will be giving the same message to those students that we’re giving to everyone else, so we’ll be asking those students to clean out their belongings,” he said.
If the strike continues throughout the summer, those children could miss a full six weeks of classes.
New Democrat education critic Rob Fleming said in a statement that it’s time for both sides to sit down and get serious about negotiation.
“The B. C. Liberal government needs to start acting like adults and take responsibility for the chaos they have created over more than a decade of confrontation in our public education system. Parents and students deserve a deal that puts public education first,” Fleming said.
Iker said that the government needs to bring funding to the table and a proposal to address class size, class composition and specialist teacher ratios to get a deal.
“For the last 12 years, we’ve been operating under illegal provisions,” Iker said, referring to two B. C. Supreme Court decisions that found the government violated the constitution when it stripped class size and composition clauses out of the teachers’ contract in 2002. That government is appealing that decision and a court date has been booked for the fall.
Iker also said teachers want a fair wage increase.
“No other public sector group has been offered four years of zeros,” Iker said.
Teachers voted 86 per cent Tuesday to escalate their job action.
The employer is offering a 7.3 per cent wage increase over six years. Teachers are asking for a 9.75- per- cent increase plus a portion of cost of living over four years. In Vancouver, a starting teacher earns $ 48,083 and the top salary level — reached after 10 years of work, for a teacher with a master’s degree in education — is $ 81,488. The BCTF says the average teacher’s wage is $ 71,485.
Teachers are also asking that class size and composition rules and specialist teacher ratios be restored to their contract.
In Cariboo- Chilcotin, the 28 elementary students who attend classes until July 24 on a so- called balanced calendar will be told to treat Friday as the last day of school, said to district superintendent Mark Thiessen.
“We will be giving the same message to those students that we’re giving to everyone else, so we’ll be asking those students to clean out their belongings,” he said.
If the strike continues throughout the summer, those children could miss a full six weeks of classes.