Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson will force rogue school divisions and teachers’ locals to accept the four-year framework agreement.
On May 13 Johnson introduced Bill 26, the Assurance for Students Act. If passed, the bill would ensure the remaining boards and two ATA locals accept the agreement. After over two and a half years of negotiation, an agreement between the government and the ATA was reached on March 15. Boards and ATA locals have spent the last two months ratifying this agreement at the local level.
“Albertans want us to continue to transform the education system to meet Inspiring Education’s vision for a new generation of learners,” said Johnson. “That can only happen in a stable labour environment. For this reason, we have drafted legislation that will implement the ATA deal in every school jurisdiction and for every ATA local.”
The four-year deal reached by government and the ATA would see compensation for 40,000 Alberta teachers frozen for three years — one of which has already passed since the end of the previous agreement. That will be followed by an increase of two per cent in 2015-16 and a one-time lump sum payment — to be funded by government — in that same year.
Following a May 12 special meeting of the St. Thomas Aquinas Roman (STAR) Catholic School Division board attended by Johnson, trustees revisited their May 8 decision to reject the proposed Alberta Education and the Alberta Teacher’s Association (ATA) framework agreement.
The vote resulted in a decision to accept the agreement by a narrow 5-4 margin.
“This is not a question of our trustees having had a ‘change of heart’ over this issue,” says STAR board chair Sandra Bannard. “Minister Johnson was clear on his expectation that all local boards will ratify this agreement by his May 13 deadline. Despite the fact that we still have concerns with many elements of this agreement, we are well aware of the potential of negative funding impacts, dissolution or amalgamation for boards that do not accept it. We’re not willing to risk the negative impacts those actions could have on our students.”
Johnson conducted 11th hour meetings with boards across the province who have either rejected the proposed agreement or remain undecided and government representatives had remained unclear on the details of potential consequences for any boards who do not sign off on it.
“There’s no question that we still have concerns with elements of this agreement,” says STAR superintendent Jamie McNamara. “Minister Johnson was clear in his comments to us that he agrees that the current system is broken and he’s seeking local recommendations on how to fix those problems. In the meantime, this agreement will provide the labour peace we need, to not only provide stability in our schools for students, but also to give time to consider the best possible options to manage negotiations for the future.”
Earlier last week STAR officials said the board believed the agreement was developed through a fundamentally-flawed process in which local voices were not heard and left many questions unanswered.