Catholic teachers accepting provincial deal

Catholic teachers accepting provincial deal

Regional News

By: Kim Zarzour

While elementary teachers in Ontario are unhappy with the current status of negotiations with the province and are threatening a strike, the same is not so for the Catholic teachers.

The province’s Catholic and French-language teachers accepted the same framework offer that is being rejected by their public elementary counterparts.

Jeff Heximer, head of collective bargaining with the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said 57 of the Associations’ 79 boards have settled.

He is optimistic all local units will reach an agreement by the Nov. 30 deadline.

Mr. Heximer said his union, which represents both elementary and secondary schools, did not focus on the funding gap because the teachers were concerned about protecting salary in troubled times with threats of inflation. The province’s offer of an additional half student to reduce class size is a move in the right direction in “diffcult times,” he said.

York Region’s Catholic teachers were the first in the province to reach a contract agreement.

Noel LaPlante, president of the York Unit of OECTA, says trying close the funding gap is “complicated,” because scheduling and education requirements – such as expensive auto shop facilities in high schools – are so different.

“Clearly there is a different in funding. The question is, is there a logical reason for that. I would suggest there is a logical reason.”

There is a tendency, he said, to see “the grass is always greener on the other side.”

Secondary school teachers also walked away from talks this spring over concerns that local issues could be properly addressed by local bargaining units. Provincial president Ken Coran says the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation is taking a vote to its membership tonight (Thursday) to determine if it will return to the table with changes which the Federation hopes will resolve that issue.

Harvey Bischof, executive officer of York Region’s District 16 unit, says talks at the local level between the York Region school board and high school teachers are “moving ahead in a substantial fashion. We’re not at the end yet, but we’re getting there.”

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