A four year collective agreement between the Elementary Teachers Federation and the Bluewater District School Board has been ratified.
It is retroactive to September 2008 and continues until August 2012.
Director of Education Mary Anne Alton says it’s wonderful to have an agreement in place for the next three years.
The agreement includes salary and allowance increases of two percent in each of the first two years, and three percent in each of the second two.
It also allows for an increase in preparation time of ten minutes each year, bringing the total amount to 240 minutes per year by 2012-2013.
The main local issue was the starting size for the average class size in grades four to eight.
That will be reduced from 26.9 to 25.9 for the next school year.
Occasional teachers will also be seeing salary increases of two, and 5.5 percent in the first two years, and three percent in each of the final two years of the agreement.
Also included is an allocation of five thousand dollars for professional development activities.
The settlements are based on the Provincial Discussion Table agreement agreed upon between the Elementary Teacher’s Federation of Ontario and the Ontario Public School Boards Association in February.
Alton says the settlement is funded provincially so the financial resources are there to provide what has been negotiated.
She says in terms of staffing levels, they’re still working through that and what they are able to provide within Bluewater’s unionized groups.