Teachers in the Sea to Sky School District are sounding an alarm, saying some support services will be getting only two-thirds of the new staffers their collective agreement outlines, judging from preliminary funding numbers.
In the coming school year, the district will be receiving too few new counsellors, librarians, special education teachers, learning assistants and teachers for English language learners, according to Steve Lloyd of the Sea to Sky Teachers’ Association.
“That is not what 15 years of sacrifice should’ve resulted in,” said Lloyd.
The influx of new support staff was prompted by a Supreme Court order to restore classes to pre-2002 levels, following a landmark ruling that found teachers had been wrongfully stripped of their right to bargain for class sizes and composition more than 15 years ago.
Lloyd emphasized that teachers believe the problem lies not with the school district, but is rather an issue with how the province distributes funding.
At the heart of the issue is what the teachers’ union is calling the displacement of certain types of support staff by what are called itinerant teachers.
Itinerant teachers are educators who are not tied to any schools, but are rather stationed at school district offices to provide help. This includes psychologists and those who work with the deaf, hard of hearing and blind.
While the union would like to see an increase in staffing levels for itinerant teachers as well, they say counting these educators as part of the new in-class support staff quotas is unfair.
Lloyd said this would spread funding too thin, cutting the amount of support staff stationed in schools who provide in-classroom assistance, such as learning assistants.
“It’s the most remarkable thing that everybody’s running around trying to make it work with a guess that is deliberately low and making us all scramble after crumbs,” he said, accusing the province of lowballing the funding numbers.
The British Columbia Public School Employers’ Association, the province’s bargaining agent, referred requests for comment to the Ministry of Education.
The ministry declined to speak on the issue, saying it could not speak on political issues during a transfer of power, referencing the possibility of the BC NDP overthrowing the BC Liberal government.
However, Lloyd is urging parents to avoid waiting for a new government to address what he considers to be funding shortfalls.
He said it’s highly probable this funding shortage will be addressed sometime down the road, but to avoid disruptions to the start of the school year, parents should talk to their MLA about the problem.
“We don’t want their kids to be facing a mess come September,” Lloyd said.
Twenty support staffers are expected to come to the Sea to Sky School District this coming fall. About seven will be itinerant teachers, according to the teachers’ union.
The numbers do not represent new hires, but the equivalent of a full-time staffer. That means in lieu of hiring a new worker, some part-timers could receive extra hours to meet the quota.
