Coming soon to a vacant school field near you: portables, lots and lots of portables.
While much attention has been paid to the $50 million that will hire more than 1,000 teachers as a result of the interim agreement between the B.C. government and the B.C. Teachers Federation, the fact that more classroom space will have to be created to accommodate those new hires is getting less ink.
As part of the agreement (which really is a historical milestone in a number of respects), classroom sizes will have to be smaller. Simply put, more teachers mean more classrooms.
The influx is unlikely to cause much chaos and confusion through the rest of the current school year (nobody wants to see many existing classrooms suddenly be uprooted and reallocated with just five months to go) but starting next September, look out.
The magnitude of what lies ahead can be seen in the affidavits more than a half dozen school superintendents filed as part of the long-running court case over the B.C. government's arbitrary decision to strip language dictating class size and composition from the teachers' collective agreement.
The superintendents estimated what it would take to meet the classroom requirements should the language be restored in the contract, which is what the BCTF fought for for more than a dozen years.
The superintendent of Surrey, for example, said it would take the construction of 51 more portables (at a cost of $4.75 million) to meet the class size and composition standards set out in the old language. While this school district is the most crowded and fastest growing, it is by no means the exception to the rule.
Abbotsford's superintendent said 21 more portables will be needed, while Langley figures 17 portables should fit the bill. And on and on it goes, across the province.
The final numbers of portables (or school expansions, or even the re-opening of closed schools) won't be known for some time yet, as talks continue between the government and the union of how to accommodate the old language (or at least most of it, as some of it may prove to be unreachable).
The fact an interim agreement was reached so quickly after the Supreme Court of Canada's embarrassing smack down of the government's case speaks volumes of the strength of the BCTF's position here.
The BCTF estimates about 3,500 teaching positions (which includes classroom teachers, librarians, counsellors, special education teachers etc.) were eliminated across the province when the old language was scrapped.
The interim deal restores almost one-third of those positions. It's unclear whether all of the rest will be restored, but it's clear the lion's share of them will be.
And there will be a final deal, although it may take some time to reach one. In the meantime, I expect the government to include funding for the final agreement (probably around $300 million, not including the costs for portables) in the spring budget (although hidden in contingencies and the like).
The interim deal also contains a new spirit of cooperation between two sides that have historically been at each other's throats when it comes to control of the classroom.
Now, a school district superintendent will sit down with the local union president to strike a joint committee that will oversee how to put all those teachers back into class, and which classes will be affected.
In other words, no arbitrary power wielded by the employer and a willingness on the part of the union to include management in classroom decision making. It appears new BCTF president Glen Hansman and relatively new Education Minister Mike Bernier can both take credit for shedding the inflammatory rhetoric both sides used to level at each other for years.
It appears a new page is being turned in B.C.'s K-12 education system, one which will bring with it significant new funding, smaller classes and many more staff resources.
This all adds up to a win-win situation for teachers, and for students, even though things may be fairly chaotic in the short term as the system tries to adapt to the new reality. Too bad it took so long for the government to be brought to heel.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global B.C.
