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Cariboo teachers exempt from ruling

An LRB ruling to force teachers to prepare report cards means nothing locally

A Labour Relations Board (LRB) ruling issued recently requiring teachers to complete report cards doesn't apply to teachers in School District 27 (SD27).

Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers' Association (CCTA) president Joan Erb says all local parents will have received report cards long ago.

The LRB order states the British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) members must submit marks and prepare report cards for “struck-work periods” since September.

However, SD27 teachers have an agreement with district administration that excludes them from that ruling, so it won't affect them.

''Once Bill 22 was passed on March 16, there was an expectation for locals whose reporting period extended past [that date] to do report cards. That was before any application to the LRB."

The reporting period for elementary students in SD27 runs from March 1 to April 15, so Erb explains she and district superintendent Diane Wright agreed teachers would send out second-term report cards, but would not do the first term.

When the BCTF later advised locals not do any back-dated report cards, Erb says it was "too late" for CCTA members, as she had made this prior agreement.

Once the issue went to the LRB to force teachers to issue report cards, the local teachers were, therefore, also exempted from its ruling, she explains.

Elementary student report cards have already been issued to parents for the mid-term reporting period, she adds.

"So we kind of lucked out in the sense that because of that agreement, we did not have to go back and do first-term marks."

For secondary students whose courses don't run all year, the agreement had resolved teachers would carry on with the regular end-of-term reporting, she notes.

Teachers gave first-term secondary marks (up to December) to the school secretary in hard-copy form, Erb says, and then the school board paid additional secretarial time to put those marks into the system.

Since Bill 22 legislated an end to all BCTF job action, she notes teachers will issue June report cards to go out to all parents as usual.