The board of trustees for Prairie Rose Public Schools. From left up front: Patty Rooks, Cathy Hogg, Shauna VanderSpruit and Nancy Haraga. In the back are Graeme Dennis and board chair Lois Bedwell.--NEWS PHOTO SAMANTHA JOHNSON
reporter@medicinehatnews.com
Prairie Rose Public Schools secretary treasurer Ryan Boser presented to the board this week the PRPS Board/Teacher Agreement Ratification. Negotiations finished in late June when a memorandum of agreement was reached, and ratification by teachers occurred Aug. 29.
Board chair Lois Bedwell and trustee Pam Cursons were part of the committee along with members from the local ATA, who talked about their interests, and Boser commented that PRPS appreciated working with them.
“This covers the Sept. 1, 2020 timeframe to Aug. 31 of 2024. It was a four- year agreement, we are three years through agreement and are entering the final year of that collective agreement.”
Professional development was one of the main aspects in the memorandum as it was not something that was part of collective agreements in the past. Each teacher on the roster as of Sept. 30 will get $550 toward professional development.
ATA local members will be able to use PRPS emails when communicating with teachers, vice principals will move from one day in lieu to two days in lieu and there will be more clarity around work assignments for substitute teachers.
“Part-time teachers talked about the expectation of having a continuous assignment where possible,” explained Boser. “So, their day is not broken up based off one assignment and then on to the next. Where we can, where possible, we’ll try to make their days as continuous as possible.”
A teacher who parents a child graduating from high school will receive one day of leave per year to attend the ceremony.
“The division is expected to continue to have a deferred salary plan in place so nothing has changed there. We’ve already had one in place. The expectation in the collective agreement is that you continue to have one.”
Three letters of understanding have also been added on extracurricular activities, substitute teacher travel and creating a professional development committee.
“We have an admin procedure outside the collective agreement where we compensate our substitute teachers based off of mileage thresholds that they travel each day. That’s an important one to us because at times it can be difficult to get substitute teachers to our schools. That’s one thing that I think helps from a recruitment standpoint.”
Bedwell said, “We went right down to the wire. They wanted to settle and we wanted to settle and we met in the middle.” Boser added that having a good working relationship with PRPS teachers helped move the negotiations forward.
Once the agreement is complete, it will be posted on the PRPS website.
