A day after the province’s school boards held an emergency meeting in Edmonton to discuss a new tentative agreement between teachers and the province – individual school boards are passing on their viewpoints on the deal.
The four-year deal announced by the province and the Alberta Teachers’ Association last week, includes a wage freeze up until the final year – where teachers will receive a two-percent salary increase and a lump sum payment that same year.
The Edmonton Public School Board voted unanimously Tuesday afternoon to not support the tentative agreement – saying it is bad for students.
“The board felt that we weren’t in a position to financially support this proposal,” Edmonton Public School Board Chair Sarah Hoffman said.
Although the deal includes a wage freeze, public school trustees said their costs will still go up because of annual incremental salary hikes based on a teacher’s experience.
“No matter how good a deal on a house might be, if you don’t have income stability, if you don’t have a steady job, and you don’t know what you’re income is going to be the next year, you have to make a decision about what you can spend on that commitment,” Hoffman said.
On the other hand, the Catholic School Board voted to support the agreement, officials said it brings labour peace - and should be handled separately from the budget.
The Catholic Board Chair said the deal will not affect the classroom.
“We believe that this tentative agreement is really sound, and that labour peace would really be the best case scenario for students, staff, parents, the whole district,” Catholic School Board Chair Becky Kallal said.
Kallal said the provincial money budgeted for education is very tight, and the agreement will have ramifications for all boards – but those impacts won’t be a direct result of the deal.
The decisions came after both school districts were debating the deal behind closed doors - their decisions will go to the Alberta School Boards Association and factor into whether it endorses the labour deal.
Tuesday's developments come after ASBA held an emergency meeting in Edmonton Monday, days after the province and ATA announced both sides had come to a tentative contract agreement.
Almost all of the province’s 62 school boards were represented at the meeting – ASBA is concerned the results of the contract agreement could negatively affect the classrooms in certain districts.
The tentative agreement was reached without input from ASBA.
However, the process of accepting the deal has begun; the ATA announced Tuesday afternoon that teachers in the Palliser Regional School District in southern Alberta had voted to accept the framework agreement.
The teachers are the first in the province to vote on the matter, teachers in the 61 other districts have until May to ratify the agreement.
With files from Susan Amerongen
