The two school boards serving the southeast area, the Southeast Cornerstone and Holy Family school divisions, are both struggling with the request from the provincial government to roll back staffing costs by 3.5 per cent, without cutting back on the teachers who staff the classrooms.
At Holy Family, the board of trustees were told that the government required the division to go to the employee groups and ask them to voluntarily take a rollback in their wages. They made the request, and as expected, none of the employee groups indicated they would agree to such a wage reduction.
Both school divisions reached an agreement with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), as they ratified a one-year agreement with a zero increase in wages.
The government was asking that employees take a 3.5 per cent decrease this year and zero increase over the following three years, in addition to the reduction in the budget for the school divisions.
The question was asked at the Holy Family board meeting why the teachers were asked to take a cut in pay, when it is only the provincial government who negotiates the teachers contract with the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation.
“The government can say we asked for the rollback, and the boards couldn’t or wouldn’t, so we have to,” said trustee Rocky Sidloski, adding there are individuals who might have agreed to say yes, but their unions do not want them to take a cut, as they want to stand united as an employee group.
At Cornerstone, the board recently passed their school calendar for 2017-18 (in conjunction with Holy Family), and with the changes made they were able to save nearly $1.4 million.
The first change involved reallocating teacher preparation time to when students are not in the building, thus reducing the need to have substitute or “release” teachers come in to cover for them.
“The local teachers association worked with system leadership to try a new approach for a one year trial. Next year the formula will provide for seven-per-cent prep time within the timetable on student days, while the additional three per cent has been moved to the calendar on non-student days. Teachers will have 5.5 days in total comprised of three full days and five half days where staff will have prep time when the students are not in school. This change alone saved $930,000,” explained Lynn Little, education director for Cornerstone.
The second change involved altering professional development (PD) days so that they are done locally in their own schools using technology, such as using webinars, “thus there will be less travel cost, less meal cost and less substitute teacher cost. On the days when teachers will have 50 per cent prep time, the other half of the day will be PD delivered at the school via technology. This delivery model saved $340,000,” said Little.
The final change related to student athletes attending tournaments or games outside of their school division.
“By scheduling the non-student days on days where there is a planned athletic event, we can reduce that effect as well as save dollars as substitute teachers are not required. This collaborative scheduling garnered an additional $25,000 in savings,” added Little.
The school division will continue to have discussions with the SEIU and CUPE members on how they might be able to reach that 3.5 per cent reduction in staffing costs, said Little.
