Teachers in Richmond were back on the picket lines as well as the classroom this week.
As some striking teachers were picketing the local school district’s board office — which resulted in its shut down — others were distributing information pamphlets across town outside Richmond Christian School where the Richmond International Student Program (ISP) started up its summer sessions with unionized teachers leading the classes.
The information picket came after a Labour Relations Board ruling last Friday that BCTF members would not be allowed to set up a full-blown picket line outside the independent school where the ISP was shifted to from its normal public school location.
Richmond Teachers’ Association president Al Klassen said he was disappointed by the LRB’s ruling, but had expected it after the Richmond School District had applied for an injunction.
“If we had teachers who were regularly attending that site during the school year, then we have a right to picket,” Klassen said. “In this case, although they (BCTF members) are teaching, they are not teaching anything K-12.”
He added the international student program’s curriculum is focused mainly on ELL (English Language Learner), components, cultural studies, and sightseeing.
“So, it’s not typical K-12 teaching that’s going on, so it’s not our members under our contract for the time they are teaching there,” Klassen added. “Given those facts, we’re not picketing where our members normally work.”
That did not stop a small group of local teachers, waving placards and handing out information sheets about the province-wide labour dispute, from lining a portion of the sidewalk along No. 5 Road outside Richmond Christian School.
Their presence prompted some honks of support from passing motorists.
Richmond school board chair Donna Sargent said the international student program — which had students and teachers on a field trip for the first day of classes — is more like a cultural exchange or a camp than a school program.
She said the students had already paid their fees and in some cases, had already arrived in Canada, so school district staff felt they had to go ahead with the program.
Sargent added the district offers the program every summer, and one of the reasons behind it is to give students an opportunity to try studying in Canada in the hope that they will come back to for the regular school program.
About 400 or so international students are enrolled locally for various periods of time throughout the summer, generating roughly $250,000 in net revenue.
Meanwhile, Richmond’s year-round international student program generates approximately a $3 million profit for the district.
And while that is a commendable return, Klassen said the problem is a continued dependance on outside revenue when the government is not adequately funding education in B.C.
“If the province was not $1,000 per student below the national funding average for education, much of the extra programs such as the ISP would not be necessary, Klassen said. “That’s the problem with these kinds of things — you get dependent on them and have to go to extraordinary lengths to keep them and the funding alive.”
— With files from the Vancouver Sun
