As Vancouver kids and their families gear up to head back to school, some may be wondering what the new B.C. government will mean for classrooms and schools. I think there might be some short-term pain with the school year start up — but a lot of long-term gain for kids. And I’m not alone.
What a difference a summer makes
When kids left for summer break, Christy Clark was still premier and Mike Bernier was the education minister. Questions remained about whether school boards had enough money to hire teachers — hundreds of teachers, in some cases — to comply with restored teachers’ contract agreements.
Fast forward to now. John Horgan is premier and Rob Fleming is the new education minister, there are hundreds of job openings for teachers and Vancouver voters go to the polls October 14 to elect new Vancouver school trustees.
What will that mean for Vancouver’s public schools?
Short-term pain?
While those I spoke to this week agree the new government will be good news for Vancouver’s public schools, some are bracing for a bumpy start to the school year.
Vancouver Secondary Teachers’ Association (VSTA) President Katherine Shipley says her members are feeling hopeful about a more positive relationship with the new B.C. government but cautions that the Vancouver School Board (VSB) and other districts may have trouble filling all the new teaching positions in time for a smooth school-year start up.
“We're really looking forward to working with a provincial government that believes in public education and wants to work respectfully and collaboratively with stakeholders,” Shipley told me this week.
As a result of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) victory at the Supreme Court of Canada last fall in its long-running legal dispute with the B.C. Liberal government, school districts must adhere to contract agreements from 2001, which means the VSB must hire hundreds of additional teachers. Many other districts are in the same boat and competing for the same candidates to fill their jobs.
Shipley says although that’s great news for students in the long run who may get additional course options, smaller class sizes and more specialist teachers, there may be disruption in September as new teachers are hired and placed in schools and students are divided into classes.
The VSB posted 280 teaching positions this week and school starts September 5. A VSB spokesperson told me "it's not unusual to have teaching positions to fill in August and early September, although this year there are more than usual. Principals will communicate as always with parents and students about the process for the start of the school year at each VSB school."
Chloe McKnight, President of the Vancouver Elementary School Teachers’ Association (VESTA), echoes Shipley’s position and says that while she’s pleased to see “great announcements” from the new government like restoring adult education funding and calling a VSB by-election to replace the government-appointed trustee, she’s concerned the VSB will have trouble recruiting enough teachers to fill all its job openings.
She expects the situation in schools to be “fluid” in September and advises her members to be patient as schools may have to reorganize classrooms during the first weeks of the school year.
McKnight says Education Minister Rob Fleming’s “announcement of a VSB by-election was fantastic and can’t come soon enough.” She says that since the elected board was fired last October, the district has been plagued by instability and turmoil in the management ranks and that it needs oversight by an elected board.
The president of the union local — CUPE 15 — that represents VSB student support workers, youth and family workers, office staff and other support workers says he’s also hopeful about the new government but concerned about instability and poor relationships at the VSB.
Warren Williams says CUPE 15 members believe the way B.C. public schools are funded is “woefully inadequate” and hopes the new provincial government will review the funding formula.
He says he’s hoping the October 14 VSB by-election results in a board that is pro public education and makes decisions that are in the best interests of students instead on focusing on the bottom line.
“I’m a government for the people person,” Williams told me this week. “If you need to go into debt to provide what people need, so be it.”
Williams is also concerned about instability at the VSB and says that since the elected board was fired it has been “topsy turvy” and that his relationship with senior managers deteriorated after VSB unions issued a statement in March rejecting a controversial report that alleged bullying by former elected trustees. The unions’ joint statement called the allegations in the report “unfair, unsubstantiated and appearing to be politically motivated” and said they supported the trustees asking hard questions.
Williams says after they released the statement, senior managers stopped speaking to union representatives and began to “ignore us when we passed them in the hallways.” He said he took his concerns about this to the appointed trustee in an attempt to rebuild fractured relationships between CUPE 15 and VSB senior management.
During my eight years as a VSB trustee — and six of those as board chair — I got used to lots of frantic and frustrated calls and messages from parents in September when they discovered their kids still didn’t have a filled time table as the end of September approached, or in some cases, were still waiting to be assigned a school.
Elementary school was a challenge too. If more kids showed up than expected, or a bunch that were expected didn’t come back, classes that had been carefully organized and with teachers assigned could have to be reorganized after a couple of weeks of school. That could mean little Johnny didn’t get his favourite teacher after all and wouldn’t be with his best friend. Or Emma would go from a grade four class to a grade three and four split class. Cue the frantic phone calls to trustees.
This would usually — but not always — all get settled down by the end of September but this year could be a lot tougher with so many new teachers still to be hired. Stay tuned and take deep breaths.
Long-term gain?
Shipley says she’s looking forward to collaborative relationships with the new government when it comes to reviewing areas like funding and curriculum design, versus what previously tended to be oppositional ones with the Clark government.
“We hope to see the new government provide funding that fully covers the cost of restoring contract language.”
She also hopes the new government will review graduation requirements that were reduced by the previous government, to ensure students don’t miss out on elective courses.
On the political front, Shipley says VSTA is pleased Fleming decided there will be an October 14 by-election to elect a new a new VSB. Former Education Minister Mike Bernier fired the elected board last October for refusing to pass a budget that included extensive cuts to staffing and programs. Since then the district has been governed by a single, appointed trustee.
“Public education should be governed with oversight that reflects public values,” says Shipley.
But she doesn’t know how Fleming made his decision — announced earlier this month — to keep the B.C. Liberals’ appointed trustee on even after a new board is elected. “We weren’t consulted and we believe that if the government wants to keep the appointed trustee on, the Ministry of Education should pay for the costs. We want to see VSB funds spent on direct service to students, as much as possible,”
Parent groups finally get a meeting with the education minister
Another key stakeholder group’s representatives are reporting the new government, and notably the new education minister, are off to a positive start.
The Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) Vice President, Shaun Kalley, says they’ve already met with Fleming, “signaling a welcome change in the relationship between parents and the government. We hope to build on that new beginning by continuing to bring issues affecting Vancouver parents forward.” Kalley says the parent groups made several efforts to meet with Bernier when he was minister, without success.
Kalley told me by email that parents are pleased the new B.C. government “is taking positive action to restore public education in B.C. by promising stable and sustainable funding and by looking for ways to accelerate the seismic upgrade process.
“We're additionally pleased the new mandate includes specific steps to reduce the financial and emotional burdens that parents have had to take on to make up for reduced services, insufficient funding, and downloaded costs.
"Fundraising in general, and for school playgrounds in particular, has long been a significant source of stress for parents, and we hope that the amelioration of the need to continually fundraise will allow parents to invest more positive time and energy in their children's educations.”
Relationships and hope
“Relationships” and “hope” are the words I’m hearing most from key VSB partner groups.
Tim De Vivo, the business manager for the International Union of Operating Engineers local 963 that represents 900 VSB employees, says a renewed relationship between government and school boards will be good for Vancouver students.
“Rob Fleming has expressed his willingness to forge that renewed relationship with all school boards and that will ultimately be good for Vancouver students,” says De Vivo.
De Vivo says he hopes that when government reviews the education funding formula, it addresses the “many deferred maintenance tasks that have been subject to unsustainable cuts for far too many years.
“Our schools are in need of funds to get this work done, to say nothing about the much-needed seismic mitigation that is required in too many Vancouver schools,” De Vivo adds.
“A new government that can address those two issues will be well on their way to show all school boards in B.C., not just Vancouver, that they are willing to work more collaboratively with them. I'm confident they'll make a good faith effort."
The wishlist
McKnight, who speaks for VSB elementary teachers and adult educators, says the VSB needs to start looking at ways to attract and retain teachers, and that it may lose those who’ve been commuting from outside the city but are now able to get jobs closer to home.
Vancouver’s notoriously high housing costs might also be a problem if districts have to compete for teachers. She says last year saw many schools unable to get substitute teachers in to cover absences, which meant resource teachers and other staff got pulled away from their duties to cover classes.
It’s important the new government fully fund the restored (by the Supreme Court of Canada) teachers’ contract language and McKnight is concerned there is still a lack of clarity about whether there is enough funding and assurance that all VSB classes will be in compliance.
She says it’s critical funding is provided to support implementation of the new curriculum and other initiatives such as coding instruction. “There’s a lot of hope there. Education funding was such a big part of the new government’s platform.”
McKnight also hopes that relationships between teachers and management will improve once an elected board is in place. She questions Fleming’s plan to keep the appointed trustee — Dianne Turner — in place once the new board is elected.
“We don’t see a need to see Turner stay on more than a day or two for transition,” says McKnight. “We’re concerned about the VSB budget being used to pay for her to stay on and we don’t see that as necessary to ensuring the success of the new board.”
In the longer term, Shipley also hopes government reconsiders how much public funding is allocated to private schools and says the portion of the provincial education budget that goes to private schools has increased significantly.
“We’re really hoping the new government can hold it together as a model of how we can do partisan politics differently,” adds Shipley.
CUPE 15’s Williams says his long-term hopes for the new government are that they fully fund all increases that result from the next round of bargaining with support staff unions and school boards and that government review Aboriginal education and include the teaching and learning of Indigenous languages in the curriculum.
He’s pleased with the new government’s recent decision to restore funding for adult education courses that was cut by the B.C. Liberals in late 2014. “Adult education courses are essential for many young adults to take the steps they need to create better futures for themselves. Those costs need to be fully covered by government,” says Williams.
On his wish list, Williams would like to see an education assistant in every classroom and day-time custodians in all B.C. public schools.
Here’s hoping for better days ahead for Vancouver schools and students and a great 2017/18 school year.