“Cautiously optimistic” is how the president of the North Okanagan-Shuswap Teachers’ Association described her reaction Tuesday morning to news of a tentative deal in the teachers strike.
Just a few hours earlier, about 4 a.m., veteran mediator Vince Ready emerged from an all-night bargaining session in Richmond between the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association and the B.C. Teachers Federation, announcing the tentative agreement.
“It’s so hard for me to say more until I get more detail,” NOSTA president Brenda O’Dell told the News, explaining that teachers will vote on the deal Thursday.
Although it’s not known what form the voting will take locally – whether via polling stations or a large meeting, for instance – O’Dell said the results of the vote would be known by the end of that day.
Meanwhile, Ready said Tuesday morning that the parties were going to be meeting later in the day to finalize a few outstanding details, and both sides had agreed to withhold details until a final document was ready to present.
In School District #83, Superintendent of Schools Glenn Borthistle and board chair Bobbi Johnson congratulated all sides for negotiating together to get students back to school. However, they weren’t able to predict, if the deal is ratified, whether schools would open Monday, a decision which was expected to be made provincially. A statement from the school district said it hopes to update parents today (Wednesday) with a plan of what will happen if the tentative agreement is approved.
Regarding missed instructional days, Education Minister Peter Fassbender has said a plan will be developed to make up the days, which could involve rescheduling Christmas and spring break.
Picket lines will remain in place, O’Dell said, until an agreement is ratified.