Tentative deal includes raise for teachers

TORONTO Ontario’s Liberal government has agreed to cap full-day kindergarten classes at 30, according to a copy of a tentative contract extension agreement with elementary teachers obtained by The Canadian Press.

If ratified, elementary teachers with the province’s public boards will get a four per cent raise over two years. That’s the same compensation offered to English Catholic teachers and French teachers, according to several other media reports.

Currently, each school board must have an average full-day kindergarten class size of 26, but there is no cap.

The terms in the tentative deal, which would still require regulatory amendments, would set a cap at 30 for the 2017-18 school year and 29 for the following year.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario wouldn’t comment on the deal until it’s ratified, but it has long pushed for smaller class sizes.

Education Minister Mitzie Hunter also wouldn’t comment on the deal before it’s ratified, but said in general there were certain principles the government had going into talks.

“It’s important that we have the resources in place on behalf of students and, as we work together with our unions, we’re ensuring that we’re meeting the needs of our students in Ontario,” she said Tuesday.

The government has secured two-year contract extensions for all central education unions except the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, giving the unions deals until 2019 and giving the Liberals labour peace with the teachers ahead of the provincial election next year.

The contracts with teachers and support staff had been set to expire this August, so these new deals would last until August 2019 — well after the June 2018 election.

Ontario also agreed to invest $50 million over the two years of the deal for school boards to hire special education teachers.