Coaching hours, extracurricular activities at risk: Sask. teachers

Parents may find themselves searching for school basketball coachesif Saskatchewan's education minister scraps local teaching agreements.

Each of Saskatchewan's 28 school boards and theirteachers negotiate working conditions, preparation time, and sick and compassionate leave days, along with compensation for noon-hour supervision and extracurricular coaching, through what educators refer to as a Local Implementation Negotiating Committee(LINC).

• Report lays out 3 options for K-12 reform in Sask.

CitingLINC agreementsas a "problem," Education MinisterDon Morgan told CBC News he would like to scrap them.

"There are significant cost issues well in excess of $100 milliona year and we'd like to find some way to deal withthem in a more appropriate manner."

Government looking for consistency

Morgan said the province wants to govern schools in a way that avoids "thevagariesfrom area to area."

Contracts differ across the province when it comes to how much time must be spent in the classroom and how much time is allocated to preparinglessons, professional development, and marking assignments. The contracts also vary greatly in how much extracurricular work teachers must completeto earn an additional day of leave.

• Health care, education amalgamation dominates annual SUMA 'bear pit' session

"If you're a science teacher teaching whatever grade, you'll get roughly the same supports and benefits as somebody else in a different city," Morgan said.

Morgan noted teachers' salaries will be also subject to the same overall 3.5 per cent wage cut being proposed for other Saskatchewan public servants.

Educators, however, are leery about efforts to standardize or outright scrap local collective bargaining agreements.

"This is just an attempt to cost-save;it's not that this is a better way of doing things" said Jim Gallagher, who spent 36 years teaching in the Regina Catholic School Division. "At least be honest about it."

Urban teachers worry about losing prep time

Gallagher spent five years as president of the Regina Catholic School Teachers' Associationand negotiated twoLINCagreements for teachers in his division before retiring. He said LINCshave historically allowed each division to respond to their own needs.

We are reaching a point where teachers are feeling a little overwhelmed with what they're being asked to do in the hours that are available.- Jeff Perry, president,Regina Public School Teachers' Association

"There's no way that taking theLINCagreements away and making them all common, or reducing prep time across the board, is going to improve education. That's a myth," he said.

He said teachers often work at home on evenings and weekends, and find themselves making a trip back to the school to prepare for classes. Teachers must also co-ordinate who uses what resources when like the photocopier to get it all done in a day.

Reduced extracurricular activities

"When you're looking at all of that planning, if that's going to increase or you don't have the time embedded in the day to do that, something's got to give," said Jeff Perry, president of the Regina Public School Teachers' Association.

He and other teachers in Regina and Saskatoon said losing prep time squeezes out voluntarynoon-hour supervision and extracurricular activities.

That could leave parents on their ownto organizeschool plays, supervise yearbook committees, and find outside coaches for school sports.

The Saskatchewan High School Athletics Association says it encouragesall school teams to have a teacher as a coach, but it can accredit non-faculty coaches who are approved by school divisions.

"We are reaching a point where teachers are feeling a little overwhelmed with what they're being asked to do in the hours that are available," Perry said, noting teachers in his division are reporting increased levels of burnout, stressand mental health problems.

The Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation said teachers in smaller school divisions often have smaller class sizesbut face other challenges, such as teaching in multi-grade classrooms.

• Sask. government orders entire public service to cap employee compensation
• Sask. premier wants to cut overall public sector worker compensation by 3.5%

The organization is preparing to negotiate a province-wide agreement on teachers' salaries this summer. The current agreement expires at the end of August.

"The system is pretty lean as it stands, but at the same point [Don Morgan] hasmade a commitment to not affect frontline services and that's what we'll expect to see," said federation president Patrick Maze.

"Meaningful consultation has to occur with teachers prior to the government considering anychanges to collective bargaining legislation, structures or processes."

Support workers say students will suffer

Educational assistants, caretakers, and other unionized support staff said a move to amalgamate or scrap collective agreements with school boards will short-change students.

"The focus is trying to squeeze a few dollars and a few cents out of school divisions, out of the education system," said Jackie Christianson, who represents just over 7,000 education workers for the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Her members currently have contracts with 21 Saskatchewan school boards.

"It's just a bad idea. It doesn't focus on children or their needs," Christianson said.