Additional money from the province should be finding its way to local classrooms quickly.
On Jan. 5, the province announced it was providing $50 million to B.C. schools to cover the second half of the school year.
The money is in response to the recent ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada that the provincial government was wrong to remove contract language covering issues like class size and composition.
The language dating back to 2001 also covered issues like the number of counsellors needed for students and special needs support.
Steve Lloyd, president of the Sea to Sky Teachers Association, expects the money could result in eight or nine full-time equivalent teaching position for the school district, which includes Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton.
“It’s a first step. Our full contract language isn’t restored yet,” he said.
Supt. Lisa McCullough said schools in the district will be discussing the positions shortly and meeting with the union. “There will probably be requests for a lot of support positions,” she told The Chief. These could include collaborative support teachers, who help teachers already in the classroom, and specialist teachers such as learning support, counsellors and teacher librarians.
The school district is anticipating getting $400,000 to $550,000 and plans to have the additional teachers hired by the end of January, McCullough said.
Lloyd emphasizes current discussions are not “negotiations” because of the direction of the Supreme Court of Canada to restore funding and contract language around factors like class size and composition.“It’s a discussion about mechanics,” he said.
A Ministry of Education news release estimates that province-wide the money should work out to roughly 1,100 teachers, although the actual numbers will be settled by districts and local unions.
The province says the money will be spent on additional classroom teachers and specialty teachers where feasible this year. Specialty teacher can include special education teachers, speech language pathologists, behaviour intervention specialists, school psychologists, aboriginal support teachers, counsellors including for mental health, ELL teachers and teacher librarians.
Where it is not feasible, the money can be used for upgrading existing teacher qualifications, as well as teacher mentoring and recruitment programs.
Lloyd points out the fact that teachers agreed to payment of zero, zero and two-per-cent increases over three years in the late 1990s in order to have class size and composition language added to the contract.“Teachers in B.C. have paid for this a long, long time ago,” he said, adding that teachers also lost pay during the job action in 2014.
Since the language was removed from the contract, many teachers have left the profession, retired or have gotten sick. Some have even died, he added, before these issues could be resolved by the courts.
Lloyd emphasizes that, as the $50 million is only the first step, parents needs to make sure the provincial government hears that public education needs to be a bigger priority in time for the Feb. 21 budget.
