WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
THIS SUNDAY
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After years of making a difference on the rugby field, Dr. Kristian Frantzen continues to make an impact in the sports community.
ONE ENTRY TO PETTING ZOO
SUMMER STRETCH
September 21st 11am ~ 4pm
Page 22
TEACHERS’ STRIKE
Schools could be back next week
RTA: Dispute unlikely to affect school calendar Graeme Wood
Staff Reporter gwood@richmond-news.com
A tentative deal has been struck between the BC Teachers’ Federation and the BC Public School Employers’ Association, but when Richmond students will be back in classrooms — if teachers ratify the deal — is yet to be determined. On Tuesday morning, Monica Pamer, superintendent of the Richmond School District, said teachers will still need to prepare classrooms and student timetables. “It would be premature to say we’re going back on ‘X’ day. Indications would be next week some time,” said Pamer. She noted more than 700 international students have stayed in Richmond during the strike, doing many of the orientation activities they would have done throughout the year. Al Klassen, president of the Richmond
Teachers’ Association, said that even if 51 per cent of teachers province-wide ratify the agreement Thursday, it will still take time to become fully operational. “There’s a lot of work both organizationally from a district perspective, administration perspective and teacher perspective.”
When asked about lost class time, Klassen said the three weeks are likely not going to affect the school calendar based on the 2005 two-week long strike that did not lead to amendments for additional class time. “I would guess we’re pretty close to where things can be shifted around in terms of
making the school year work,” he said. Early reports Tuesday indicated the teachers were given a 7.25 per cent pay raise over a new, six-year term. The government will give the BCTF a one-time $100 million grievance settlement for breaking the 2002 contract. Also, the BCTF will be given $85 million per year to hire new teachers and assistants to deal with additional classroom size and composition needs. “If this isn’t a reasonable deal for teachers we’ll be back into the same tough bargaining in six years,” said Klassen. Meanwhile, about 25 students at Palmer Secondary school staged a rally for teachers Tuesday morning. Grade 12 student Laura Chen said given the loss in class time, she fears extracurricular activities will suffer. “It will be difficult to catch up, but as long as we get support, I think we will get by,” added Chen. Palmer teachers said if the deal wasn’t acceptable, they wouldn’t vote for it. The BCTF has recommended teachers accept the deal.
Parent group disrupts rally A new, Richmond-based parent group calling itself the BC Parents’ Federation crashed a pro-BC Teachers’ Federation rally on Sunday in Downtown Vancouver, causing a small skirmish. CBC News reported the two sides required Vancouver police to step in as some BCTF supporters became incensed when the handful of parents, most wearing surgical masks, had confronted them. Photos of the protest by CBC and local Chinese media websites show parents holding signs reading “We love teachers but not the BCTF.”
It’s unclear exactly who the parents are, however, a man named Tom Tang told CBC he was the group’s spokesman. Tang may now face disciplinary action from his workplace, the Richmond Centre for Disability (RCD), for using its website to procure supporters, organize rallies and make anti-BCTF statements. “It was unauthorized use of the server,” said Ella Huang, RCD’s executive director, who made it clear that RCD had nothing to do with the rally. “It has been rectified, and we will take any internal review and disciplinary
action that is necessary,” said Huang, noting the sub-pages to accessrichmond. ca that promoted the parents group have since been taken down. Meanwhile, an associated Facebook page up and running on the weekend has also been deactivated. When the pages were active, they indicated the group had just 32 members. The parent group had staged its own, uninterrupted protest on Sep. 7 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Tang did not respond to inquiries, via email, from the Richmond News. — Graeme Wood/Richmond News
Richmond-based parent group crashes BCTF rally in Downtown Vancouver Saturday. Wearing surgical masks the protesters held signs reading “Support Government.” Photo Submitted
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