B.C.'s teachers are threatening to picket summer school, a move that could keep as many as 50,000 students provincewide out of the classroom, if a deal isn't reached.
The announcement Wednesday by B.C.
Teachers' Federation president Jim Iker comes as the Labour Relations Board considers a government application to designate as an essential service summer school for high school students who have failed classes. A ruling on that is expected by the end of this week.
"I still believe that a fair deal is attainable, but getting there will require new movement from government on the critical issues of class size, class composition, and staffing levels for specialist teachers," Iker said at a news conference. "This was not a decision we made lightly."
The wrinkle comes as the B.C. Teachers' Federation and its employer were about to sit down for exploratory talks Wednesday afternoon to discuss the union's call for mediation and how to move forward.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender responded to the BCTF announcement by saying the two sides are still "miles apart" and that "mediation will only work if you have the parties closer to a settlement.
"We are not going to go into deficit to fund what we think are unreasonable demands by the BCTF," Fassbender said.
Iker said the BCTF has only made a decision to picket summer schools and did not comment on the year-round or alternate education settings, which the government has also asked the LRB to designate as essential. Iker said all teachers will participate in the pickets, and said individual locals would determine how picket duty would affect individual teachers' holidays.
The province's largest districts, Surrey and Vancouver, are going to wait a few more days before deciding whether to cancel summer school.
"We won't make the decision to cancel until we no longer believe we can get the curriculum covered. Summer school starts July 2. We would not make a final decision until July 3," said Surrey school district spokesman Doug Strachan.
