The bargaining committee of the North West Teachers' Association signed a local agreement June 28 that will be in place for the next two school years.
The bargaining process was quick, productive and characterized by mutual respect and a desire to do the right thing by all parties involved.
"We met initially in December," said teacher bargaining committee chairperson Pam Newman, "and a facilitator came in and discussed 'interest based bargaining' with us. We agreed at that point to wait until after the provincial budget came in to continue negotiations so that we'd know what we were actually dealing with. We then had three other meetings. At the first we shared information, at the second we talked about what the agreement could look like, and at the third we finalized the details of it. The meetings were positive and productive."
"It was a great process," agreed superintendent of human resources Cory Rideout. "There were new teams on both sides of the table, but both sides were cognizant of the others' needs, and I was very appreciative of that. There was a lot of respect around the table. We got along great and it was a very positive experience."
"It's a good agreement," he continued, "and one that's fair to everyone."
"We got the sense from the admin team and the board that the teachers are a priority," said Newman. "They listened to what we had to say, took our issues to a very supportive board and responded in a constructive affirmative way."
"I'd personally like to thank the members of my team, the board and the members of the admin team for the positive attitudes that they brought to the table and for looking after the interests of the teachers."
The vote on the agreement was 93 per cent in favour of ratification.
"They were a great group of people to work with," said director of education Duane Hauk. "When people come together with a common goal the process can be pretty quick. We came together to try to find a way to meet the needs of our teachers because we value our people. We wanted to come up with an agreement that would offer the very best that we could, especially under the parameters that we were operating under."
"It was a very cool experience to be a part of this all," said teacher representative Matthew Bodnarchuk. "We can go back to our teachers and say that we know that our board supports teachers and students and we can say that with a great deal of faith."
"For my part," said board chair Doug Murray, "I really appreciate the positive working relationship that the Northwest School Division has with the North West Teachers' Association. We try to work very hard to keep that relationship up."
