Page A10 — Terrace Standard, Wednesday, December 19, “1990

TERRACE — The public needs to get a clearer picture of what the school board «does, says board chairman Edna Cooper. Cooper — re-elected by tie board to the post of chairman at the board’s Dec. 4 inaugural | meeting ~~ said there are many

problems and ‘Shallenges to be

tackled.

. Many residents don’t realize the trustees. aren't supposed to ‘have a. finger on the smallest details of the system, she said. .: “We don’t have the expertise for all these jobs,’ Cooper said. _ ‘The board is a wide and “diverge: group of people chosen from the community to oversee the ‘running of our school system. It is our business to monitor the job — it is not our business to do the jab.”’

She -referred' to recent criticism that no trustee has par- ticipated in the contract talks for the past several months,

“It is no more proper for us to negotiate the contract than it is for us-to go into the classroom and teach,” she said. **We have to see to it that it’s done in a proper way, but not do it ourselves.”

To immerse the entire board in the contract negotiation pro- cess would be counterproduc- tive, she said. ‘‘We wouldn’t have an objective view of it,” Cooper said, ‘To be objective and see that there's a balance is our most important role.”

Teachers’ union organizers who call for belt-tightening in the school district’s administra- tion before budget cuts are made anywhere else either don’t

' understand the whole picture or

Teachers ready strike scenario

; TERRACE — School District i 88 teachers unanimously ap- | proved a plan last week that sets

the stage for a teachers strike

here if a contract settlement isn't reached.

Terrace District Teachers’ Association (TDTA) president Robert Brown said the plan presented by the union’s ex- ecutive received 100 per cent support in meetings of teachers in Terrace, Stewart, Kitwanga and the Hazeltons.

The Dec. 10 vote came as both sides agreed to resume talks Jan, 11-14,

Brown said the four-phase plan leading to a strike begins now. with a public relations campaign and ‘‘political action,”’

At phase iwo, he said local teachers would hold rallies, con- duct a sanctioned strike vote,

_ serve 72-hour strike notice, and have School District 88 declared

a “hot district.”

Rotating walkouts would begin at phase ihree, Brown said, and phase four would be a full strike.

He said the strong approval of local teachers gives the bargaining committee the man- date to carry out a strike vote at ‘ any time,

Brown said there is no set time frame for escalating the plan to direct job action, adding that the bargaining committee will remain at the initial stage of the plan at least until talks with the district resume in mid- January.

-. It's dynamic — it's just like

“negotiations. It's an open-ended

kind of ‘fluid thing,’ Brown osaid. ‘*You can’t really put

“timelines on when you imple-

“ment phase two or phase three

or whatever, It can happen in a

week, or it can happen in two -

- months.”

‘The teachers have been |

‘without'a contract since July 1,

_ Both sides remain far apart on.

the issue‘of wage increases, as ‘well, as-.dozens of.’ other sd “articles stemming _from ‘the: Old: contract,

“This is the strongest man-

date ‘ever given. a negotiating. team,” said Frank Rowe, the’. . union’s chief-negotiator, ‘The’ board should now have a clear...

are out to make vatich points, she said.

“There are certain functions } |

of the school district that must be covered in the budget. We can’t eliminate, for instance, administration in order to get more teachers, That is not a reasonable. expectation.”

“Our budget is mainly payroll and benefits for teachers. We have the second- - largest payroll in this whole area ‘after Alcan,’ she said. We spend $20 million in this district on wages and payroll. That must be properly adminstered."” Cooper said the city’s ad- ‘ministration goes unchallenged, yet the public reacts far more critically to the school district’s similar system of administra- ‘tion.

*“T don't think they unders- tand what it's:all about. We have a budget five times the size

Fy a, on

TRIM TIDINGS

from...

>ublic fuzzy on school | board role, says chairiiah

Edna Cooper.

of the municipality. And yet the.

perception in the public eye is that we do not need an assistant secretary-treasurer to deal with that amount of money.”

The public doesn’t’ seem to understand the jobs of the trustees, the administrators,

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and what a large organization we have,” Cooper added, t “There’s also @ perception that the board is inaccessible to many people,’’ she said, ‘‘and that. really'concerns me."” “The board’ should be ac-

cessible to the people, because’ we are their representatives. If. |

that’s the case, then there’s something wrong.” Cooper: said’ considerable

’ changes are needed in the ways -&

the school district deals with both residents and teachers. ~

._ “The Year 2000 program that’s coming forward is going to be acompletely different type of educational system than we have now. But we are still work- ing in the old ways. We — the teachers, the board and the ad- ministration — are not coming to grips with ways to adjust to what we will be doing in the

, future.”

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