NS teachers council talks upcoming presidential election, new tentative agreement and bringing back school boards

Over the first weekend in May, the Nova Scotia Teachers Union–the NSTU–held their 103rd annual council meeting in Halifax. Up for discussion over the three days was the upcoming election of a new union president, the need to raise awareness of rising levels of school violence, the new tentative agreement to be voted on, and 90 resolutions that were put to a vote including one that passed before the weekend began.

NSTU’s current president Ryan Lutes tells The Coast that the vote happens through an electronic process before council where, if a resolution gets over 75% approval in advance then it gets passed before the council weekend. One of those that passed “overwhelmingly” was a resolution to reaffirm the NSTU’s commitment to bringing back elected school boards in the province. Says Lutes, whichever candidate is elected to fill his shoes once his term ends this summer will be representing the majority of teachers who have made their position clear on this: school boards must come back to Nova Scotia.

[LINK TO STORY ON THEIR DISSOLUTION IN 2018]

“When I put on my president hat,” says Lutes, “I'm the teacher’s spokesperson and teachers have told us that our position is to advocate for elected school boards. I would hope that any future president would also realize that they're the spokesperson and take direction from teachers–and I think teachers have given us that direction.”

Lutes says the union has remained consistent on wanting the return of elected school boards to Nova Scotia, since their dissolution in 2018 when they were replaced by Regional Education Centres–RCEs.

“School boards provided a layer of accountability,” says Lutes, “and a place where parents and students knew they could go,” if they weren't getting answers about their child’s education. “They knew that they could go to their school board member. That was a democratically elected group of folks whose only job was to talk about issues in our schools. Without that, there's a lack of accountability on a number of issues,” including school safety.

[EMBED STORY LINK TO BOMB THREATS]

In June, Lutes will represent teachers at the Nova Scotia Legislature following the auditor general's report and recommendations on school safety in the province. The NSTU started a letter writing campaign to make sure they were allowed at the table discussing the audit on school safety, as they were originally not part of that Public Accounts Committee meeting.

“One of the positive things that's come out of our meetings with the Department [of Education and Early Childhood Development] about school safety,” says Lutes, “is that they've issued a letter to teachers and administrators saying they want them to report” on violent incidents in schools.

“Hopefully our next set of data from the department is more realistic and more representative of what's actually going on.” Lutes says teachers don’t always feel like they can or should report on these incidents, and sometimes they’re pressured not to.

“I think good data, in general, drives better decisions and so we certainly want that,” says Lutes, adding, “we know it's a major issue and I certainly don't need more data to know that.” Yet, Lutes says data helps in creating and directing supports and policies to addressing and preventing violence in the first place. For Lutes, school safety is “an escalating issue that the Department [of Education] frankly isn't doing enough to solve.”

This connects to an absence of elected school board members to advocate and intervene on behalf of families and students.

“I've heard from parents and teachers who sometimes believe that violence in our schools kind of gets swept under the rug or minimized by the [RCEs]. Maybe that wouldn't be happening if we had our democratically elected school boards,” he says.

Ultimately, says Lutes, without school boards “parents and students have one less place to go with their concerns than they did before.”

Five candidates are running to be the next NSTU president to follow in Lutes’ shoes, with the new term starting Aug. 1.

The winner will be elected for a two-year term. During the council, all five candidates spoke and answered questions from members. Union members will vote for the new president on May 15 and, if a candidate receives a majority vote of over 50%, they will win outright. If not, there will be a runoff election with the top two candidates on May 29.

Says Lutes of the five members running, “they’re from all around the province, from Sydney to Halifax, with a wide range of teaching perspectives–some high school teachers, some teachers that specialize more in technology or special education–and differences in terms of their strategies around unionism and trying to increase the effectiveness of the NSTU.

I think all could do a good job and it's going to be the membership that'll decide who fits their perspective best.”

Another top of mind concern that the teachers council discussed was the new tentative agreement to be voted on this May 22.

“We wouldn't have a tentative agreement if we didn't think it was a reasonable agreement,” says Lutes, “but we’re also very clear that it doesn't solve every issue in education and we'll continue to advocate on those issues.”

Though Lutes adds that he’s not sure a collective agreement will help solve the school violence issue. ”That's part of where the auditor general's report is really important, and the actions that will hopefully come from that.”

Lutes says there are still a lot of opportunities to make improvements outside of the collective bargaining agreement, on “real issues” like school safety, teacher recruitment and retention, NSTU governance strategies, as well as “societal issues” that are impacting classrooms and teachers.

“Things like poverty, the housing crisis, affordability– those aren't necessarily educational issues, but certainly if it's a societal issue, it impacts our classrooms,” he says.

Lutes says he expects the tentative agreement to pass.

“I'm not suggesting that we got everything that we wanted, or that the agreement is going to change everything, because it's not. We still have a lot of work to do outside of our contract to improve public education, and we're certainly willing to take on those issues,” he says.

“At the end of the day, whatever decision our membership makes is the right one.”

Lauren Phillips, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Coast