A flurry of grievances may have been filed over class sizes elsewhere in the province but it is generally not an issue in School District #57, according to the Prince George and District Teachers Association.
A recent report from school district administration says only a half dozen classes at the Grades 8-12 level and none at the Grades 4-7 level are above the 30 student limit set out by the provincial government, and all are in non-academic courses, primarily music and concert band.
The outcome won an expression of approval from PGDTA vice president Matt Pearce.
"To give our district credit, they've made it a very high priority to make sure that the money is there to get the classes down within the legal limits," Pearce said.
Representatives of the B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association (BCPSEA) were in Cranbrook this week to consider 400 grievances filed between 2006 and 2008 by teachers who say their classrooms were in violation of the province's class size and composition law, known as Bill 33.
There are also 4,600 grievances from the 2008-09 school year, 5,000 from 2009-10 and thousands more - yet to be tallied - from the current year, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Locally, about 30 grievances were filed last year and so far this year the number stands at 20 and will likely be no more than 25 by the year's end, said Pearce.
"We do count ourselves lucky in comparison to a lot of places where there are hundreds and hundreds of grievances each year and there are thousands from previous years," Pearce said. "Those places aren't managing as well."
Grievances have been filed in School District #57 related to the number of special needs students in a classroom. There are supposed to be no more than three per class but the number can be exceeded if, in the opinion of the administrator, the classroom is still appropriate for learning.
"We have classes at the elementary level that have six, seven, eight [special needs students] in a class and unfortunately the teachers don't feel they can meet the needs of classes when the numbers get like that," Pearce said.
Administrators hands are often tied on the matter, he acknowledged.
"They definitely do what they can but there are some cases where the composition issues within the school are such that they can't really address the individual classrooms very well," Pearce said. "There are just so many special needs children in the particular schools that they can't even it out and get within the standards that are set in the legislation."
Devoting more money to schools where the composition issue is severe is the answer in Pearce's opinion. "If they had more money, they could have more divisions in those schools and therefore spread out those students so they can get the attention they need," he said.
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