Several untested assumptions and a few erroneous conclusions are revealed when government indicates to school districts that it will pick up the tab for a proposed 10-year deal with teachers, but that school districts will still be on the hook for increases for non-teaching staff.
First, there is the assumption that teachers, or at least the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation, have any interest in a 10-year deal. Given the shaky level of trust between the BCTF and government, even in the short term, that is not an assumption on which to base a unilaterally restructured round of negotiations.
The level of trust was further diminished when government flexed its newly elected muscle and, without any real consultation, changed the negotiations rules by adding a new negotiator and virtually setting aside any progress that had been accomplished in six months of negotiating.
Another assumption is that the teachers will accept any kind of deal that excludes non-teaching personnel.
Negotiations in public education have, at times, strained relationships between the BCTF and the non-teaching unions. When teachers have walked off the job and set up picket lines, the non-teaching unions have honoured those picket lines, effectively putting their own members out of work in support of labour-relations conflicts not of their own making.
For teachers to accept any kind of deal that left the non-teaching staff high and dry — we are talking about people who work side by side in schools and school districts every day — might fracture relationships irreparably.
Then there is the assumption that somehow the non-teaching staff do not provide “core services,” and pay raises for them could be found without reducing core services.
One conclusion that could be inferred from that assumption is that there are not enough people left in the Ministry of Education who understand how school districts operate on a day-to-day basis and what non-teaching staff do.
Non-teaching staff include custodians who keep schools clean and ready for the daily onslaught of hundreds of kids with muddy boots.
Bus drivers are not teachers either, but they get the kids safely to school with a safety record exceeding that of any other vehicular public service. To whom do parents entrust their kids between the time kids leave home and arrive at the school’s front door? Those who drive the yellow buses.
Then there are education assistants, those saintly and endlessly patient folks who make it feasible for kids with intellectual and physical disabilities to experience life in classrooms more reflective of their own communities.
Educational assistants help these kids learn what they can do, rather than how their disabilities disqualify them from leading productive and satisfying lives.
Tradespeople do not teach, but they keep aging school facilities in working order, saving the government substantial capital-replacement costs. Carpenters, electricians, plumbers and painters make sure that the classrooms are safe and presentable places for kids to learn, and that school grounds are not dangerous for kids and are acceptable for community use.
School and school district secretarial staff accomplish most of the record-keeping and bureaucratic requirements, some of which have been created by government itself. They call home when kids are sick, field phone calls from parents, even apply Band-Aids when needed.
Ask any principal or district administrator who are the people who really understand what makes a complex school district function and they’ll readily admit: “When I want to know what is really going on I ask my secretary — she’s connected to places I am not.”
These people must be asking themselves why it is that, after four years of no pay raise, not striking, not withdrawing services, just simply doing what needs to be done, they are essentially being told “any raise for you will come from reductions within your own ranks,” while the teachers are told government will pay for their raises.
If teachers go along with this, I will be very surprised.
Geoff Johnson is a retired superintendent of schools.
