Like many of her colleagues around the province, Willows Elementary School teacher Oonagh Gann was hard at work Friday preparing her classroom for the arrival of students next week.
Most school districts are expected to welcome students back Monday following a teachers’ strike that delayed the scheduled start of the school year by three weeks. The strike was resolved Thursday when B.C.’s public school teachers voted 86 per cent in favour of a six-year contract.
Veteran mediator Vince Ready helped broker the deal between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association, which negotiates on behalf of the provincial government.
“Very happy to be back,” said Gann, whose daughters, Marina, 17, and Asia, 11, were helping her get organized. “Very excited about meeting all my new Grade 1 students.”
Willows principal Wendy Holob is also looking forward to getting the year started for the school’s approximately 600 students. Teachers and staff were everywhere at the Musgrave Street school on Friday, she said, while parent volunteers and children were helping arrange school supplies.
“It’s so neat to have people in the hallways and kids in the gym.”
There is plenty of anticipation among all the teachers, Holob said. “They’re anxious to get back. They’re anxious to get their classrooms set up.”
She anticipates several of them will spend time at the school over the weekend.
Education Minister Peter Fassbender told the Times Colonist that the extended teachers’ strike could take some time to get over.
“This one, in a lot of ways, has been quite emotional,” he said. “My objective in all of this is to build a bridge to the relationship that we need to have. The first plank in that bridge is a negotiated settlement.
Fassbender said he is determined that B.C.’s 500,000 students enjoy a good school year.
“I know that I may not be the most popular person in a lot of teachers’ minds, but my job now is to prove to them what I’ve said time and time again, and that is [that] I’m focused on the future of every student’s education in our province.”
Fassbender said no special steps will be needed to make up for time lost to the strike.
“What we don’t have to do is disrupt the system even more by trying to change the calendar,” he said.
“So the districts, the teachers, the superintendents and everybody else are going to work to make sure that everybody finishes their year as they should.”
Some, including Greater Victoria Teachers’ Association president Benula Larsen, view the new contract with mixed feelings.
She said it doesn’t address all of her concerns, including those around class size and composition, which refers to the number of special-needs students and other factors in classrooms.
“This is not what I went on the [picket] line for. This is not what I lost pay for. But at the end of the day, one of the good things that came out of this are my members are back at work and going to be receiving a paycheque.”
Larsen said she also appreciates the attention the strike brought to issues such as class composition. “The public, parents, community, the regular Joe on the street who has no kids in the system get it now.”
While the strike may be over, teachers still have a role to play in improving the education system, she said.
“Even though we’re back in the classroom, the fight is not over,” she said.
“Now that we’ve picked up this momentum, now that people get it, there’s trustee elections [on Nov. 15]. There’s provincial elections in four years.
“We can’t go back in our classrooms, close the door and do our thing. We need to continue to engage in that discussion.”
