The provincial government has told the North East School Division it must reduce salary expenses by 3.5 per cent. Teachers’ contracts are ending before the next school year starts, but the support workers’ contract will last until 2018.
Don Rempel, the division’s director of education, said they cannot increase staff for the next year. There will be some staff lost through attrition – retirements and resignations.
Support workers
The majority of the support staff are represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4875. That contract ends Aug. 31, 2018.
“The local has no intention of opening up the collective agreement early,” said Patricia Gausman, its president. “We have always had a good relationship with the school division and we will be meeting with them to discuss the provincial funding shortfall. We anticipate that those discussions will be respectful.”
The president added the province chose to cut education funding while reducing corporate income taxes and that there’d be no problem if education funding was restored.
Rempel said there are a few support workers that aren’t part of the union, most notably some secretaries, bus drivers and caretakers in Nipawin.
“What we do with those employees is we usually line them up with whatever CUPE bargains. We try to compensate them comparably.”
Teachers
Teachers are represented by two organizations in the Northeast.
The North East Teachers’ Association negotiates items like substitute pay, some forms of leave, professional development bursaries and supports, preparation time, and supervision duties with the division. The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation negotiates salary with the province.
In a media release, Patrick Maze, the president of the federation, said negotiations have to begin, by law, 100 days before the contract ends Aug. 31.
“The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation is very concerned about the impacts these continuing announcements have on students, parents, teachers, principals and relationships in the sector,” he said. “The Federation and its members expect that resources will remain focused on the classroom, and that the provincial government and school boards will work together to solve these budget challenges while mitigating any potential negative effects on schools and communities.”
NETA’s agreement is to end at the end of June. David Rogers, the association’s president, said negotiations between them and the division are set to begin soon.
“How that will be affected by provincial funding is kind of uncertain because,” he said, “all that stuff is all up in the air. It seems that everything’s still a moving target.”
Teacher salaries ranged from $45,400 to $93,433 in the 2015-16 school year. The average salary for a principal was $106,092, with the lowest earning $87,822 and the highest $123,606.
Superintendents
Even the people at the apex of the division’s hierarchy will be expected to be part of the 3.5 per cent reduction.
“We’re included with that,” Rempel said. “Superintendents have contracts with the school division that I manage with them as well.”
Salaries for superintendents ranged from $147,000 to $165,200. The average salary of the three superintendents that spent the entire 2015-16 school year with the division was $162,623.
Rempel said that his contract is negotiated between himself and the school board. The director of education’s salary was $210,152 in the 2015-16 school year.
Other
Student service staff, which includes occupations like speech pathologists, are all in different situations. Some are part of CUPE, while others have their own professional contracts.
