School District 57 is calling on the B.C. Teacher's Federation and the provincial government to get back to the negotiating table and settle their dispute before September.
The district's board of education sent a letter Wednesday to the province, B.C. Public Schools Employers' Association and the federation asking them to immediately resume negotiations, compromise on wages and benefits, resolve the class composition issue, and reach a settlement before school begins.
"We strongly believe that this current impasse cannot continue," said Sharel Warrington, the school district's chair. "We are very concerned with the public's trust and faith in our public education system, and [are concerned] that this long labour unrest is causing it to be eroded.
"We feel that the province needs to come to a resolution with the [federation]. We call upon both parties to put our students first and [negotiate in good faith] and in turn restore faith and confidence in our public education system."
At this point in time, there are no formal negotiations between the parties, but there have been informal talks between Jim Iker, the federation's president, and Peter Cameron, the government's lead negotiator.
"We are not taking sides. We are just urging both sides to immediately resume negotiations," Warrington said. "We have five weeks left between now and school starting and we would definitely need to see school begin this September without a labour dispute hanging over our students, teachers or employees."
Neither the government nor employers' association were willing to comment about the district's letter, as they said they haven't had enough time to sufficiently examine it. Tina Cousins, president of the Prince George and District Teachers' Association, said she understands the district's concerns but thinks the letter isn't fair, as it portrayed the federation as passive in negotiations.
"I didn't think it was an accurate representation of what's going on," she said. "We've been at the bargaining table over 18 months and that's a concern to all of us. We feel the government hasn't come to the table in good faith.
"We feel that we've made some major moves at the table and the government has not come back with anything - no new money, just the same old, same old: 'We've been given a mandate and there's no new money.' We feel that's shameful."
Peter Fassbender, the education minister, told a Kamloops radio show that the federation's move to reduce the increase in wages that they were asking for still isn't enough to be affordable to the province.
"We do appreciate they came within a single point of what the government said the employer's offer was," he said, "but the other items on the table - benefits, the grievances and the cost of some of those things that they've put on the table - still put them well over twice what the other public sector unions have asked for."
The teacher's federation wants to see the two sides go to mediation without pre-conditions attached, Cousins said. Fassbender said the two sides are still too far apart for mediation to be effective.
Fassbender said the government could not provide any guarantee kids would be going back to school in September and it's not planning to rush to a legislated settlement.
As for the school district, Warrington said it was going to be persistent in asking the government and the federation to get down to negotiations.
