It's time for the provincial government to step in and resolve the impasse between the BC Teachers Federation and the BC Public School Employers Association, says the School District 43 board chair.
Bargaining for a new teachers' contract will soon be entering its 12th month with no end in sight and Melissa Hyndes said she fears burnout, stress and frustration among administrators, teachers, students and parents unless the current labour dispute is resolved soon.
"Although a legislative agreement is not the best type of agreement, people are frustrated and nobody's moving forward and in my opinion, I think most boards of education would like the government to step in," Hyndes said.
She said schools and school boards are caught in the middle while the BC Teachers' Federation and the provincial government are far apart. The teachers have asked for a 15% wage increase over three years while BSPSEA has to stick to the government's net zero mandate.
"I think it should be legislated and should be legislated back soon, there is just no way [for an agreement to be reached]. We have a zero mandate and they still come back with a 15% over three years," Hyndes said.
Her comments follow a statement issued this week by the BCPSEA that puts in doubt any settlement while the two sides are so far apart. "It has become evident, however, that any number of presentations, explanations or meetings will not help the parties reach a new agreement," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the current labour dispute continues to affect school district operations, Hyndes said, and productivity is down because district officials have to spend two hours a day covering recess duties. Last week, school principals had to leave their schools to invigilate provincial exams and then mark them the following day.
"It's trying to balance all of the work that would have been done by teachers is now being done by administrators and district staff. It is a really small group managing a system of 30,000 students and 2,000 employees," Hyndes said.
Report cards are also affected because they are not considered an essential service.
Because districts appear to be managing, there has been no sense of urgency in resolving the impasse, she said. But that could soon change.
She expects the BC School Trustees to get more vocal on the issue of teacher negotiations when it meets later this month and Hyndes said she would like to see the BC Council of Parent Advisory Councils to raise the issue, too, with its members.
