B.C.'s long-running labour dispute with teachers may finally be coming to an end.
On Tuesday night, the B.C. Teachers' Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers' Association reached a tentative deal.
"That was good news - tempered good news - because after hearing both sides of the agreement, there are still a lot of things up in the air," said Burnaby school board chair Larry Hayes. "My first reaction was this was somewhat of a cooling off agreement with both sides realizing there's a provincial election next spring."
Hayes said the deal was "a real positive for students and parents."
"I would like to think that things for the most part will go back to normal," he said.
As part of the labour dispute, teachers have pulled back from voluntary extracurricular activities and not fully participate in administration meetings, Hayes said.
The teachers' union and BCPSEA (the government's bargaining agent) still have to vote to ratify the two-year deal, which ends on June 30, 2013.
The agreement does not cover salary increases, class sizes or the limits on the number of special needs kids, some of the major sticking points for the BCTF.
BCPSEA chair Melanie Joy said the two parties were far apart when the discussions started.
"When we got to the end deal, we both moved on several of our opening (positions)," she said. "It's a very bare contract. We have a few things we've achieved."
Richard Storch, president of the Burnaby Teachers' Association, wasn't really happy with the deal because it didn't cover class size and composition.
"We don't have a large number of classes oversized in Burnaby, but the composition issue is a very high priority to be dealt with by our members," he said.
