Our school board is very concerned about the current strike in our province, especially now that negotiations between the two parties have stalled. We feel that the strike has a negative impact on our students, staff morale and on the positive relationships that we foster in our district. We know how stressful this last month has been for teachers and of all the extra work our administrators and senior staff had to pick up in the last month. We would like to thank them for their hard work and commitment to students and to our district.
We are particularly worried about our vulnerable students who will miss out on the summer reading program that would have been offered during summer school. These students will now miss out on educational opportunities for at least two months which means that they will now further lag behind when school resumes.
Trustees in our district (through our provincial BCSTA) have lobbied both the government and the BCTF to get back to the bargaining table and to continue negotiations until a negotiated settlement is reached.
Our board has also written a letter to the minister to express our concerns and to urge the ministry to explore and appoint with the BCTF a mutually agreed-upon mediator. Trustees in our district support a freely negotiated collective agreement with both CUPE and BCTF unions and we would like to see a fair wage and benefit increase that is fully funded by the government. We also want to see the concerns around class size and class composition resolved and hope that through negotiations between the BCPSEA and the BCTF, this will be achieved.
On a positive note, our CUPE Local 523 and the board of the Okanagan Labour Relations Council (school districts 53, 67 and 83) have reached a tentative agreement and the local boards and CUPE will now be working through the ratification process.
We are very proud of our 193 students who graduated from our four secondary schools. Trustees attended the ceremonies at YouLearn.ca (25 graduates), Southern Okanagan Secondary School (81 graduates), Similkameen Elementary Secondary School (33 graduates) and Osoyoos Secondary School (54 graduates). It was heartwarming to hear from the students how so many of our teachers and administrators touched their lives and inspired them.
The board approved our 2014/2015 budget (as explained in last month’s board report) at our last regular meeting of the school year. Superintendent Bev Young also outlined the 2014/2015 District Achievement contract which was approved.
