BOW VALLEY – Teachers with the Canadian Rockies Public School division (CRPS) are trying to hammer out a new contract with the local school board more than two years after their contract expired.
Both parties are currently in mediation and declined to provide details about negotiations. The new contract will cover 2016 to 2018.
“The board and the teachers both agreed to keep discussions at the table confidential,” said Shane Nizinkevich, president for the teachers’ local bargaining team.
“We’re hoping to resolve this as soon as possible. Teachers really want to move forward and so we’re putting our faith in the process and we’re hoping that through mediation we’ll come up with a good agreement for both parties.”
He steered around questions about whether teachers would take job action should both parties fail to reach an agreement.
“We’re focused right now on actually resolving everything through mediation so nobody is really talking or thinking anywhere further down the line. Our goal here is to focus on the process and focus on resolving all of the discussions through mediation.”
Carol Picard, chair of the board, remained optimistic about the negotiations.
“Canadian Rockies has a very positive relationship with and long history of successful negotiations with our local staff,” said Picard. “Presently, we are in mediation and therefore we respectfully do not negotiate in the public realm.”
CRPS is among 14 other school divisions across the province that have yet to reach an agreement on local issues with their school board as of Sept. 12.
Those that have reached agreements have managed to find common ground on issues such as professional development, leave provisions and substitute teachers’ rights.
Local contract negotiations are part of a two-tiered bargaining model introduced in 2016.
The Alberta Teachers’ Association bargains about issues such as salary and benefits with the province while smaller cost items are discussed and negotiated between teachers and their local school boards.
The two-year provincial agreement struck in April 2017 expired on Aug. 31, 2018, and the next round of provincial bargaining is underway.
Alberta teachers haven’t walked off the job, or been locked out, since a strike in 2002.
