Al Erricson has been teaching basketball for 32 years.
After three decades barking out instructions from the sidelines to kids he doesn't see every morning at the breakfast table, the father of four was looking forward to being the coach of his own teenaged kids at Duchess Park secondary school.
But that's not going to happen.
Erricson, a Duchess Park phys-ed teacher, is putting down his clipboard and walking away from his volunteer coaching duties - all because of a technical foul the province is about to impose on its teachers when it passes its Bill 22 education reforms.
"I don't profess to be an expert in understanding any of it, so a lot of my feelings come from the heart, as to how I feel the government is not respecting our profession and not respecting what we do to try to create a good and positive school environment," said Erricson.
"But when you're constantly not respected by your employer, there's a certain point where you don't feel you can continue, no matter how good it is for the students, who now happen to be my children. Until I feel respected, I choose at this point to not volunteer my coaching in the school
system."
Erricson has a son in Grade 12, a son in Grade 10, a daughter in Grade 8 and his youngest son is in Grade 5.
He coached his daughter on the junior B girls team at Duchess this past season.
He's already agreed to coach the Basketball B.C. north-central zone under-14 girls team in the B.C. Summer Games, but with the government about to legislate a two-year contract on teachers that would run through to the end of the next school year, Erricson says he won't be at the helm of any school team while that contract is in place.
What upsets Erricson most about Bill 22 is it takes away the right of teachers to have a say on limits of class size and will also scrap the limit of three special-needs students per classroom. He said, while the government has launched an ad campaign focusing on how it has increased spending on
education, the budget for schools hasn't kept pace with the rate of inflation and increasing operating costs.
When Erricson started teaching special-needs students 14 years ago, each special-needs student in that class received more than $15,000 in additional funding.
Now, he says, schools receive less than $5,000 extra per special needs student.
Erricson saw a Facebook posting of a study that found classroom size had no effect on the ability of students in that classroom to learn.
He said the government is quick to refer to such studies when it comes under fire for suggesting a removal of class size limits would not have a detrimental effect on schools. He said larger classes might work for a private school with high-achieving students, but not in a classroom with disadvantaged and special-needs students.
Teachers have been fighting with the government for improved working conditions since 2002 and there doesn't seem much cause for optimism, but Erricson won't rule out an eventual return to the high-school coaching ranks. "To not volunteer as a teacher is an extremely difficult thing to do, but I think teachers have realized that because this has gone on so long, they're backed into a corner having no other option because all our other forms of protest or expressing our concerns are taken away from us," he said.
-- Clarke, Citizen staff
