The president of the Coquitlam Teachers' Association is hoping the BC Teachers' Federation and the provincial government waste no time in implementing changes to school funding as a result of the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling that put class size and composition back into teachers' collective agreements.
Ken Christensen said classes across the district could become smaller as a result of the court's decision, with more specialist teachers available to help students with special needs.
And while it's not immediately known what the impact could be, he said numbers as high as $27 million have been quoted to restore class size and specialist teacher positions in the collective agreement for teachers in School District 43.
"Our perspective is they would not keep student and teachers waiting any longer than they have to," Christensen said, noting that secondary classes could be made smaller and more specialist positions such as counsellors and English as additional language teachers added soon as the next semester without upsetting schedules.
"The district has tried very hard to make class sizes smaller as much as it can and to not exceed class-size limits, but there is going to be impacts across the system when we get those class-size limits back in," Christensen predicted.
But how soon SD43 will feel the effect of the Supreme Court ruling is still an open question for board of education chair Judy Shirra.
"It's definitely something that will affect our new budget," said Shirra, a Port Coquitlam trustee, "It's a wait and see."
Shirra said the district has been challenged to keep class sizes down especially in a period of enrolment growth, and she looks forward to a time when schools don't have to turn away new students in their catchment because classes are full.
"It's something we've been aware of. It's going to be interesting to see how it pans out."
SMALLER CLASSES
Meanwhile, Christensen said he is elated about the BCTF's Supreme Court win after 14 years, saying he still has his copy of the 2002 collective agreement from the days when he started out as a teacher.
At the time, SD43 kindergarten classes could only have 20 students, compared to 22 now, and Grade 1 to 3 class were kept to 22 students, compared to 24 today. Shop and home economics classes were also much smaller, 24 compared to 30 students per class today.
As well, there were limits to the size of special education classes, and secondary lab classes could only have 28 students, compared to 30 today.
"It doesn't sound like a lot but if you look at that across the system, that's a lot of extra kindergarten classes… You're going it see it all the way through the system, definitely it's going to generate additional classes all the way through kindergarten to Grade 12."
BUDGET WOES
Christensen admitted it's still unknown exactly how the Supreme Court ruling will play out in SD43 but said he hopes it means the restoration of a number of teaching positions, such as counsellors and learning assistants, that were cut.
Previous to the government's legislation, these positions were placed in schools depending on enrolment and the elimination of ratios meant the district could cut the positions when it faced tough times, as it did in 2014, when it cut more than 100 teaching positions.
Still, Shirra said there is no way the district will be returning to staffing numbers from 2012, when the district's enrolment figures were over-inflated.
The province has stated it has $100 million set aside in case the court case didn't go its way but that's only about a third of the funding the BCTF says is needed to restore collective agreements.
Christensen says the government has a $1.9-billion surplus that can help improve classes, adding, "The money is there to pay for the restoration of these contractual obligations."
