First step after BCTF's landmark court win sees Province provides $50 million to hire teachers

By Boundary Sentinel

Surprisingly, two sides that have battled tooth and nail for more than a decade have reached an agreement to inject some life, and much needed funding, into the public school system.

The BC Teachers Federation has reached agreement with the BC Public School Employers' Association and government on an interim measure to immediately create more than 1,000 new teaching positions — 1,100 according to the Liberal government — while discussions continue on full restoration of teachers' unconstitutionally stripped collective agreement language. 

The funding is for the 2016-17 school year.

The actual number of teachers hired will be determined by districts, local unions, and the hiring process.

“Since the BCTF won our court case back in November, we have been moving forward with two goals,” said BC Teachers' Federation President Glen Hansman in a release on the BCTF website.

“The first goal was to get as many teachers as possible back into schools and classrooms as quickly as possible. This $50 million agreement is the first step. It means hundreds more teachers will be in schools working with students across the province in a matter of weeks.

"The second and most important goal- full implementation of the 2002 collective agreement language-will now be the focus of talks between the two parties.”

Hansman emphasized that Thursday's agreement is in no way a final resolution, nor does it impact a future agreement on full implementation of the restored language.

While the new funding is badly needed, and will help many teachers and students, the government will have to provide significantly more funding to meet the requirements of the Supreme Court of Canada's ruling.

“With this interim measure agreed to, the parties can now turn to the crucial task of fully implementing all the language that was restored by the court,” said Hansman.

“The two sides will be meeting again next week to continue discussions. The BCTF's goal is to ensure these talks are not long or drawn out and that all Boards of Education, schools, teachers, students, and parents have certainty about how and when the language will be restored.

The BC Government will soon provide school districts with $50 million to immediately begin hiring teachers and improve student supports, Education Minister Mike Bernier announced Thursday in a government media release.

“We have to find a way that is both practical and appropriate for the education system we have today," said Mike Bernier, Minister of Education.

"This new funding will help to kick-start the changes we all know are required following the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision. While the positive negotiations continue, we’re going to keep focused on solutions that work for kids in their classrooms.”

The priority measures, outlined in a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) signed this week by the Province, the BC Public School Employers’ Association and the BCTF, are the first step in responding to the decision from the Supreme Court of Canada as negotiations continue on the restored collective agreement provisions.

Key points of the Memorandum of Agreement include: 

• $50 million in new funding from the Ministry of Education to create 1,000-1,100 teacher full-time equivalents (FTE) for the balance of the 2016-17 school year.
• The new funding will be used to implement two priority measures: adding enrolling-teacher positions and non-enrolling positions in schools (for example: counsellors, teacher-librarians, special education teachers, and other specialists across all grades). 
• Allocation of the net new funding at the school district level needs to be jointly developed and decided through a district committee established by the Superintendent and the local union President.  Decisions about what jobs will be posted and where needs to be decided by the local parties. There will also be a dispute resolution process if there is no agreement between local parties.

The priority measures MOA provides districts with the flexibility to work with their local teachers’ union to determine how best to use the funding to provide additional education services for students by hiring new teachers and specialist teachers.

The parties agreed in the last round of bargaining that they would reopen the agreement and negotiate from the restored contract provisions. The parties continue to meet and jointly review the old contract language as well as current district-level information on classrooms and composition. These negotiations will determine how to modernize the language so it reflects changes to classrooms that have taken place over the past 15 years.

Both sides are working collaboratively to ensure that the final agreement on the restored provisions will have a meaningful impact on student outcomes and working conditions for teachers into the future. In the meantime, the action announced by the B.C. government today is ensuring students benefit from enhanced learning environments now – while negotiations for a final agreement are underway.

The priority measures funding is in addition to the $5.1 billion invested in public education in B.C. which includes $100 million in the learning improvement fund that is already in place to help hire more teachers and education assistants.