Bulletin 55 – COVID-19 variants in K-12

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As of February 21, the U.K. variant of COVID-19 has been identified in exposure events in five schools in Surrey and one school in Delta.

Surrey schools affected are:

  • AHP Matthew Elementary
  • James Ardiel Elementary
  • École Woodward Hill Elementary
  • Surrey Traditional Elementary
  • Tamanawis Secondary

One school in Delta, Hellings Elementary, also has been identified with the U.K. variant.

Thankfully all of the 35 tests, administered at the six schools, came back negative. Referencing that layers of protection are working, the PHO is not revising guidelines at this time, although they are closely monitoring the situation and will revise guidelines, following the science.

Variants

The COVID-19 B.1.1.7 variant, first identified in the United Kingdom, appears to make the virus more infectious, allowing it to spread more easily. There may be an increase in severity of symptoms and mortality rates depending on the variant of the virus.

When there have been several significant mutations to the virus, it is called a variant. A variant is considered “a variant of concern” when it affects:

  • disease spread
  • disease severity
  • tests used to detect the virus
  • vaccines and treatments

Stopping the spread

Our Early Years–K-12 members are to be commended for their commitment in keeping schools safe, while continuing to provide high quality education and care. It is more important than ever to remain vigilant in the personal efforts we are each making to stop the spread of COVID-19. This includes staying home when sick, washing hands frequently, maintaining physical distance when possible, and wearing a mask when not possible to maintain distancing.

Meanwhile, we are supporting you by successfully advocating for improvements to public health and health and safety measures, such as having school districts provide paid time for isolation, quarantine and school closures when directed by public health; and improvements to streamline the process of exposure notification recently announced by Fraser Health. The Rapid Response Team is now in place and will begin its work liaising with districts and health authorities next week. Fraser Health has now implemented additional protective measures in response to increasing COVID-19 and variant cases in the region.

CUPE continues to work with the BC Centre for Disease Control, the B.C. government, WorkSafeBC and all K-12 stakeholder groups in reviewing and amending health and safety guidelines. As a baseline, these are the minimum standards school districts must meet and worksite specific safety plans are required to detail these measures and address enhanced responses to local circumstances.

If you have concerns about the safety measures in your worksite, please work with your joint health and safety representatives and CUPE local to address these issues.

Please follow us @cupe12bc on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and view bulletins at https://bcschools.cupe.ca.

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Bulletin 54 – Wear pink on February 24

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On Wednesday, Feb. 24th, we wear pink to show that every student deserves to feel safe at school.

The first Pink Shirt Day was a student-organized protest against homophobic bullying. In 2007, a Grade 9 student in Nova Scotia was targeted, threatened with violence and called a “homosexual” because he wore a pink shirt to school. Witnessing this, fellow students David Shepherd and Travis Price bought and distributed pink shirts for their classmates to wear.

The resulting “sea of pink” sent a powerful message of solidarity—not only for the bullied student, but for all who have been told to dress or act a certain way because of their gender. On #PinkShirtDay honour the roots of the movement by reflecting on what we can do to stop homophobic and transphobic bullying.

In safety and solidarity,

Warren Williams
K-12 Presidents Council President

Colour me pink!

Take a photo of yourself wearing pink or colour this t-shirt and take a photo. Email us your pink pics and we’ll create a “wall of pink” to post on bcschools.cupe.ca.

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Bulletin 53 – Progress on standardization of EA credentialling

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We’re making exciting progress on standardization of credentialling for education assistants across the province!

Bulletin #39 on November 27 reported on some of the terms negotiated in the Provincial Framework Agreement to work toward these objectives:

  1. To standardize EA credentials and qualifications across the province, to prevent school districts from creating in-house EA qualification programs as short as two weeks in length.
  2. To increase EA hours, where possible and desired, to full-time.
  3. To increase classification and compensation of EAs in the public education system, ensuring that EAs are appropriately educated and equipped to provide high level assistance that will ensure the safety of students and EAs.

Negotiation and advocating for EAs

The provincial Job Evaluation Committee, Health and Safety Taskforce, and School Support Education Committee all have mandates to address these objectives. The Provincial Framework Agreement (Article 11 – Early Care and Learning Plan) was also negotiated, in part, to pursue opportunities to maximize EA hours of work.

In addition to these negotiated terms and the great work of the provincial committees, CUPE has been consistently advocating for standardization of EA credentials with the Ministry of Education. On behalf of CUPE education assistants, we will be continuing this dialogue in the months to come.

One of our key objectives is to have standardized provincial education requirements for EAs established, with credentials offered exclusively through public post-secondary institutions. Experienced EAs who are already working should have the
opportunity to participate in additional education, if desired, but this should not be mandatory for those EAs. This objective will provide the provincial JE Committee with greater ability to apply a standardized and increased classification and compensation structure for CUPE EAs across the province.

Working together with the Ministry

We understand that the Ministry of Education recognizes the need for these improvements to the education system and will work with CUPE on implementing these goals. This process will require some time to ensure that a system for standardizing EA credentials is well-structured. We will continue to pursue this as a priority for EAs and we commit to providing regular updates on this subject.

Please follow us @cupeK12bc on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and view bulletins at https://bcschools.cupe.ca.

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Bulletin 52 – Revised K-12 COVID-19 guidelines released

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The Ministry of Education, in a collaborative process with provincial health officials, WorkSafeBC, CUPE and B.C.’s education partners and rightsholders, announced significant updates to the K-12 Health and Safety Guidelines earlier today. CUPE sits on the Steering Committee where we advocate for safer schools and increased guidance to the K-12 sector.

As many of these changes are welcomed, they are intentionally broad so as to allow for districts to implement them according to their individual operational structures.

We strongly encourage K-12 locals and Health & Safety Committee representatives to take part in the implementation process to ensure these measures are carried out effectively within your specific district.

Save the dates: K-12 Presidents Council meeting

The K-12 Presidents Council and CUPE K-12 coordinators will be holding two meetings next week with K-12 local presidents, unit chairs and your local Joint Health and Safety Committee representatives. We will review the practical application of the guideline changes and CUPE National OH&S representative Tom McKenna will be available to answer questions.

We encourage you to participate in these meetings to provide input as well as have the opportunity to ask questions.

Tuesday, February 9 and Thursday, February 11 at 3 p.m.

We continue to work with the Ministry of Education through the Education Steering Committee and other partner meetings on a weekly basis to discuss and advocate on behalf of K-12 members across B.C. and look to locals to guide this advocacy.

The Ministry of Education will be funding the development of a Rapid Response Team to liaise with Regional Health Authorities. This will assist with the exposure notification process.

We want to commend all K-12 members for their tireless work throughout this pandemic and their continued strength.

Provincial COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidelines for K-12 with changes highlighted are online. Guidelines for regular reviews of health and safety plans will help ensure consistent application across districts. Other revisions include buses, cleaning and
disinfecting, and guidelines for staff only spaces.

Wearing masks

Clarifications on masks include:

  • Elementary students’ mask use is based on personal or family/
    caregivers choice
  • Bus drivers are required to wear a mask on buses

K-12 staff and middle/secondary students should wear a mask indoors in school except when:

  • sitting or standing at their seat or workstation in a
    classroom or learning space
  • there is a barrier in place
  • eating or drinking

Those wearing masks must still practice physical distancing.

A new Health Check app

You can download the Ministry of Education’s K-12 Health Check app. Mobile apps are available for Apple and Google.

Provincial COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidelines for K-12 with changes highlighted are online.

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Support Staff Job Evaluation Committee Bulletin #5

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Background From Provincial Framework Agreements:

BCPSEA and the K-12 Support Staff Unions first agreed to establish a Provincial Job Evaluation Plan, possibly including a regional or local approach, as part of the 2014-2019 Provincial Framework Agreement (PFA).  The job evaluation tool used is based upon the CUPE gender neutral job evaluation plan with modifications to fit the needs of the K-12 sector.  The Provincial Job Evaluation Steering Committee was established in 2015 and seven (7) districts with CUPE locals piloted the plan throughout 2018 and 2019.  Ten (10) additional districts, including two (2) with locals other than CUPE, have been identified for a second pilot of the plan.

The 2019-2022 PFA confirmed that the work of the Provincial Job Evaluation Steering Committee would continue as follows:

  • Review the results of the phase 1 pilot and address any anomalies identified.
  • Expand the pilot to accommodate ten (10) additional districts/locals including at least two (2) districts with locals other than CUPE to confirm the validity of the tool and the benchmarks.
  • Rate the provincial benchmarks and create a provincial job hierarchy.
  • Utilize the provincial job hierarchy to evaluate local district hierarchies.
  • Identify training requirements to support implementation of the provincial job evaluation plan.

The 2019-2022 PFA recognizes that the provincial job evaluation process is potentially lengthy and onerous and provides the opportunity for the engagement of additional job evaluation consultants to assist with job evaluation work.  It also recognizes the established management right of employers to determine local job requirements and job descriptions.  The 2019-2022 PFA contemplates the disbursement of available JE funds commencing January 2, 2020 or as mutually agreed.

Phase 1 Pilot:

As previously indicated, the seven (7) phase 1 pilot districts are:

School District 06 (Rocky Mountain)/CUPE Local 440

School District 28 (Quesnel)/CUPE Local 4990

School District 36 (Surrey)/CUPE Local 728

School District 42 (Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows)/CUPE Local 703

School District 53 (Okanagan Similkameen)/CUPE Local 523

School District 63 (Saanich)/CUPE Local 441

School District 68 (Nanaimo Ladysmith)/CUPE Local 606

 

Throughout 2018 and 2019, the joint job evaluation committees in the phase 1 pilot districts provided feedback to the job evaluation consultants on the draft provincial benchmarks and ratings and completed preliminary matches for each district job to the provincial benchmarks.  They also provided feedback on the pilot 1 process through completion of a questionnaire.

Phase 2 Pilot:

The Steering Committee received a large number of expressions of interest from school districts and locals for participation in the phase 2 pilot.  A number of factors were used by the Steering Committee in the selection process including:  geographic location; district size and other demographic considerations; status of existing job evaluation process and job descriptions.  Based on the provisions of the PFA, only ten (10) districts could be selected, two (2) of whom had to be non-CUPE locals.  The final selection of the pilot districts was conducted by the Steering Committee.  Unfortunately, not all districts and locals that expressed interest could be selected.

The districts and locals that were selected for the phase 2 pilot are:

  • School District 22 (Vernon)/CUPE 5523
  • School District 33 (Chilliwack)/CUPE 411
  • School District 45 (West Vancouver)/WVMEA
  • School District 60 (Peace River North)/CUPE 4653
  • School District 69 (Qualicum)/CUPE 3570
  • School District 73 (Kamloops-Thompson)/CUPE 3500
  • School District 75 (Mission)/CUPE 593
  • School District 83 (North Okanagan Shuswap)/CUPE 523
  • School District 58 (Nicola Similkameen)/CUPE 847
  • School District 78 (Fraser Cascades)/CMAW 2434

The joint job evaluation committees in the phase 2 pilot districts are scheduled for training in early February and will be asked to complete a number of job evaluation tasks to contribute to the work of Steering Committee.

Next Steps:

Following receipt of data from pilot 2, the Steering Committee will finalize the provincial benchmarks and ratings and will address final modifications to the job evaluation plan, such as reviewing job matches identified by the pilot districts, rating jobs not matched and determining point weighting. After these steps are complete, the Steering Committee will determine a process for inclusion of remaining districts and locals in the province.

Pay Adjustment Process:

The 2019-2022 Provincial Framework Agreement provided a commitment that “The disbursement of available JE funds shall commence by January 2, 2020 or as mutually agreed.”  The Steering Committee acknowledges that implementation of the job evaluation plan will be retroactive to January 2, 2020 within the funding provided under the PFA.

Provincial Job Evaluation Steering Committee Members:

Chris Losito – CUPE Staff

Jane Massy – CUPE, Local 947

Paul Simpson – CUPE, Local 379

Warren Williams – CUPE 15 & President of K-12 Presidents’ Council

Ranjit Bharaj – BCPSEA

Maureen Carradice – BCPSEA

Lynda Minnabarriet – School District 74 (Gold Trail)

Royce Norum – School District 57 (Prince George)

Advisors:

Peter Coombes – CUPE Staff Advisor

Harpinder Sandhu – CUPE Staff Advisor

Jackie Bonsal – BCPSEA Staff Advisor

Joe Strain – BCPSEA Advisor

Should you have any questions, please contact Chris Losito (CUPE) at closito@cupe.ca or Maureen Carradice (BCPSEA) at maureenc@bcpsea.bc.ca.

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