Provincial deal with school board association could get teachers back to the negotiating table
Sask. teachers plan to pull extracurricular activities provincewide Monday to Wednesday
Teachers are open to returning to negotiations if the provincial government brings the funding deal it announced on Friday to the bargaining table, under certain conditions, says the head of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF).
On Friday, the Saskatchewan government announced a deal with the province's school boards that it said would address class complexity with $356.6 million in funding per year for four years.
"Now that our government has made this unprecedented commitment in a signed agreement, it's time for the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation to end their job action and return to the bargaining table," Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said in the news release.
STF president Samantha Becotte told media on Friday that the federation would need to see certain conditions, including that the divisions "cannot use these new funds for anything other than student supports."
She said the money needs to be restricted to student supports because "unrestricted" money could be used to service debt.
"We are encouraging the Minister of Education to bring an amended version of this [memorandum of understanding] to the table, where bargaining can happen and we can put it into the contract. Sanctions can end and we can get a deal," Becotte said.
She said teachers continue to have reservations over how the deal was struck without their input. And the funding isn't as good as it may seem on the surface, she said.
Becotte stressed that it only works out to about $45 million per year in additional funding and some of it has already been announced by the province, such as the specialized support classroom pilot program.
The deal also lays out how the funding beyond this fiscal year is subject to appropriation. That means it could be removed as part of the budgeting process.
"We need a way to keep school boards accountable in addition to keeping government accountable to the funding," Becotte said.
STF leaders were not the only ones blindsided by the deal announced Friday morning.
Ted Jaleta is a trustee with Regina Public Schools, a board which is supposed to be represented by the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.
Jaleta told CBC on Friday that the first time he heard about the proposed deal was from the news release.
"We locally elected trustees were not consulted. We were not asked. We are not part of it in any way," Jaleta said.
The agreement has left him frustrated, disappointed and feeling disrespected.
Friday's funding agreement was announced just hours after the STF revealed its planned escalation of job action next week: Three straight days of withdrawing extracurricular activities provincewide and one day of no noon supervision in parts of the province.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, there will be no sports, field trips, student travel or graduation planning, the STF said.
On Wednesday, noon-hour supervision will be withdrawn in schools in Creighton, Prince Albert, Lloydminister, Humboldt, Meadow Lake and the Prairie Valley School Division.
Earlier this week, teachers across the province withdrew from extracurricular activities for two days, on Tuesday and Wednesday. Some areas also saw the withdrawal of noon-hour supervision on Friday.
Becotte said the job action planned for next week will go ahead unless the province agrees to begin negotiations.
Teachers in the province have been without a contract since August and have been carrying out rotating one-day strikes and withdrawals of services since the start of the year.
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With files from Jason Warick