Some school district plans could be delayed this year because teachers aren't participating in board and advisory committees due to their job action-a teachonly campaign-that started in September.
The VSB is working on several key initiatives, including an aboriginal-focused school and a pilot for year-round schooling.
"It is a challenging situation when teachers won't participate in these things. Fortunately, our year-round calendar priority is currently in an early development phase, where we are still developing the framework of the model," said VSB spokesman Kurt Heinrich. "At the moment, job action hasn't had an impact. However in the future, should the framework be adopted by the board, we would not be able to meet our consultation requirements should teachers choose not to participate in the process. We would likely be unable to move forward without their feedback."
Heinrich said the aboriginal-focused school is a priority and the district is trying to meet its timeline. "We also received extensive feedback from teachers around this subject prior to job action. Therefore the process is moving forward despite the lack of representation from our elementary and secondary teacher reps. It's unfortunate that they are unable to participate as we really would like to have their voice included throughout the process. We are hopeful to get their feedback on the school and our plans as soon as possible."
Chris Harris, president of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association, said while teachers aren't participating on board and advisory committees, the union is meeting with the employer about contract enforcement, grievances, and discipline.
He said the VSB is losing out in getting advice and recommendations from its biggest employee group and argues BCPSEA (the B.C. Public School Employers' Association) has "draconian concessions on the table that would basically strip most of our collective agreement away." Harris maintains while it's important school boards get teacher feedback, it's even more important that teachers get a collective agreement that meets their needs and gets guaranteed support for students.
"Teachers are missing out on lots of opportunities, not just on district committees and district advisory committees. We're also not meeting with principals in school, which means we're not participating in staff meetings in school," Harris said. "I don't think we would ever suggest that in normal circumstances we don't value meeting with managers at the school level or the district level to give advice and recommendations. However, right now we have to look at the bigger picture. We're trying to achieve some long-lasting rights for teachers and guarantees for students."
Harris noted if the board plans to do something different than what's in teachers' collective agreement in terms of the aboriginal school, it will have to talk and negotiate with teachers. "It really depends on the scope and nature of any changes that they're trying to do. I've talked to certain district personnel and also trustees and I hear there's a general frustration that we aren't at the table right now," he said.
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