Proposed deal for Sask. teachers includes classroom complexity task force: internal document

The executive of the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) is endorsing a proposed contract agreement that will be offered to teachers at the end of the month.

The proposal includes some new measures to address classroom complexity that were absent from the previous proposed agreement that was resoundingly rejected by teachers earlier this month.

According to an internal document sent to teachers and obtained by CBC News, the new proposed collective bargaining agreement includes promises of a task force on classroom complexity.

The document says that a ministerial task force on classroom complexity, to be co-chaired by the STF, the Ministry of Education and Saskatchewan School Board Association (SSBA), will seek to identify the situation in schools and offer solutions to it. It says the task force will include teachers, students and parents.

"The goal of it is to ensure that real, lived experiences and individuals who are directly connected to classrooms have their voices amplified and have the opportunity to share those experiences directly to the minister," federation president Samantha Becotte said in an interview.

She says the agreement would include $18 million in new funding each year to target classroom complexity for the length of the agreement, on top of the multi-year funding agreement previously signed between the SSBA and the provincial government, which sets aside $316.1 million per fiscal year from 2024 to 2028.

There is no mention of class size, which has been a central issue in the contract dispute, in the internal document provided to teachers. 

Becotte says she envisions class size as part of class complexity, but there is nothing concrete about size in the proposed agreement.

"Classroom complexity isn't going to be solved within one collective agreement or one budgeting cycle," she said.

The proposed agreement covers a three-year term from Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2026.

According to a news release from the STF, teacher salaries would increase three per cent in the first two years of the agreement and two per cent in the final year at a cost of about $91.5 million.

The document highlights a "one per cent [of the base salary costs] market adjustment that will be equally distributed across all [teacher] increment grids and calculated after the three per cent raise, retroactive to September 1, 2023. This is in addition to the salary increase of eight per cent over the three years of the agreement."

Becotte would not elaborate on how that one per cent affects the salary increase, but said other compensation has been negotiated on top of the eight per cent increase.

Teachers will vote on the proposal on May 29 and 30. The results are expected to be announced on May 30.