EDMONTON - Alberta Education Minister Jeff Johnson says he's pleased to see that the umbrella group that speaks for school boards is taking a hands-off approach to a proposed provincewide contract for teachers.
Johnson says he agrees with the Alberta School Boards Association that the issues vary from board to board and decisions should be made at the local level.
School boards are divided over a tentative four-year-deal announced last week by the province and the Alberta Teachers' Association.
The deal addresses teacher workload issues but will see zero pay increases for teachers for three years followed by a two per cent hike in the last year.
More than 20 school boards have signed on to the deal, but the public school boards in Edmonton and Calgary have not.
The ABSA and the Alberta government have drafted a comfort letter to address several concerns. The government is prepared to sign off on this letter if all 62 boards agree to the deal.
"We're working to assure our school boards of some of the uncertainties that they have around this agreement, which were around instructional time, which were around the creation of this exceptions committee, which were around funding, and this comfort letter is there to assure- with the Premier's signature- that these things indeed will be looked after on a go-forward basis for school boards," said Jacquie Hansen, ABSA President.
Johnson has said he'll work with each board to allay concerns.
Each individual board and Alberta Teachers' Association must ratify the agreement by May 13th for it to go ahead.
With files from Global News.
© The Canadian Press, 2013