The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Executive secretary predicts “seminal” year ahead

Raymond Gariépy
ATA News Staff

In his remarks to the Assembly, Executive Secretary Gordon Thomas acknowledged the freshly minted honours bestowed by teachers on Julius Buski, Earl Hjelter and David King. And in so doing, he captured perfectly the thoughts of Epicurus, who wrote: “The honour paid to a wise man is a great good for those who honour him.”

Every organization is the sum of its parts and, as illustrated by Thomas, the Alberta Teachers’ Association can be proud of its members, its partners, and the good work the Association does on behalf of its members and public education.

Kudos aside, however, the ATA is not free from ­challenges—both internal and external. In the past year alone, 5 of 31 members of executive staff retired and were replaced—“a major transition in a short period of time,” Thomas acknowledged. Outside the organization, disagreement between the government and the ATA over the formula used to calculate the Alberta Average Weekly Earnings resulted in an arbitration that successfully secured an increase in earnings for members. “This was a very major exercise for our staff, especially our Teacher Welfare staff, as the Association launched grievances in every school jurisdiction,” Thomas said.

Thomas is especially pleased with the ATA’s representations to government. “We have made substantial efforts and, I believe, had significant influence on the work around Inspiring Education ... and Setting the Direction.” Additionally, the ATA has successfully implemented practice review. “The Association is now responsible for monitoring the competence of our members, and I want to note that to date we have not had even one case to deal with and we have not had a single call from members of the public about the process or with complaints,” he said.

He cited the renovation of the ATA’s website and its headquarters, Barnett House, as good news for members, and applauded the work of the Committee on Redistricting and District Representative Workload, whose resolutions and recommendations ARA would later debate.

With the provincial government’s June release of the report Inspiring Education and looming changes to the School Act, transformative change in education is on the horizon, Thomas observed. “The year ahead could be a seminal one for the Association and for Alberta’s education system.” Revisions to the School Act will involve conversations about the role of the teaching profession. He cautioned that “previous reform efforts have attacked the work of the profession—form-fit curriculum, high-stakes testing and accountability.” This time, however, Thomas says there “appears to be a genuine effort to consider the key role played by the profession in education.” Who knows, Thomas opined, “we may actually see, as this process truly gets under way, some rethinking of the sacred cow of achievement tests.”

Opening the School Act provides an opportunity to discuss, among other things, the role of the profession in professional development for its members, and self-governance, he said. The latter would allow the profession to establish standards for entering and for remaining in the profession.

The executive secretary began his speech by paying tribute to the recipients of the ATA’s highest awards, so it was fitting that Thomas publicly acknowledged in his closing remarks the contributions of two Association staff members. In December, long-time business manager Sandy Normandin retired after 28 years of service and, early next year, Robert Bisson, coordinator of Member Services, will retire after almost 40 years as a member of the teaching profession. “Robert models the finest qualities of leadership, engagement and teamwork and has truly coordinated the work of his colleagues,” Thomas said.