The Alberta Teachers’ Association

The following was sent by e-mail on November 1 to the Alberta Teachers’ Association. It is being printed here as a letter to the editor. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of the ATA.

The October 22 issue of the ATA News featured a story by Violette Bigeat with the headline “Enrolment in francophone schools increases.”

Does the author deliberately minimize The Conseil scolaire du Nord-Ouest and the Conseil scolaire Centre-Est by failing to name them and by referring to the Conseil Franco Sud and Conseil scolaire Centre-Nord as “the two major boards”? Obviously, that logic implies there are two “minor” boards. Did the author mean that the trustees and administration of Conseil scolaire Nord-Ouest and Conseil scolaire Centre-Est are of little importance? Or did the author mean that its teachers and support staff are of little importance? Or maybe the author meant that the children and adolescents in the five schools operated by the Conseil scolaire Centre-Est and the three schools of Conseil scolaire du Nord-Ouest (over a thousand students in total, by the way) don’t matter.

When Conseil scolaire Centre-Est and Conseil scolaire du Nord-Ouest teachers ask for services from the ATA, does that mean they are on the bottom of the call-back list in order for ATA staff to deal with teachers from “major” boards? (That might explain the complaints I hear from CSCE teachers). Does that mean that when the Conseil scolaire du Nord-Ouest and the Conseil scolaire Centre-Est, as employers of teachers, negotiate collective agreements; the ATA doesn’t care whatsoever about the contracts that are signed between the two boards and teachers? Why do our board names show up on the 62nd line ranking list of teacher/board settlements? If these boards are of such little importance, why does the ATA reference other board settlements in attempting to improve teachers’ working conditions with these two “minor boards”? If we are so unimportant as to not be worthy of mention in an article entitled “Enrolment in francophone schools increases,” does this mean the ATA doesn’t really care about the settlements for nearly a hundred teachers? (If so, I would need to know before we head back to negotiations later this month. It could change the dynamic somewhat.)

Do the Conseil scolaire Centre-Est and Conseil scolaire du Nord Ouest teachers matter only because they generate union dues? If they are of such little significance to even mention, why does the ATA not just completely abandon union dues for its members teaching in one of the eight schools these two boards operate? Why does the ATA even bother sending these teachers, trustees and superintendents a copy of the ATA News? To let us know what’s going on in the “real world”?

Or perhaps it’s because the author is showing disdain for small rural boards, Francophone, Catholic and Public. That would explain why the ATA didn’t even hesitate to throw small rural boards under the bus when it negotiated the settlement between it and the Government of Alberta. (Who cares about those country hicks, right?)

If there is any truth in what has been written thus far, I would invite the ATA to muster up the courage to come and tell students, once and for all, that teachers, support staff, administration and trustees of the two not-worth-mentioning-francophone-boards (and all other “minor boards”) that they don’t matter and that the hard work they put into everything they do, every single day, doesn’t matter!

(And don’t get me started on the “majority/minority” question!) ❚

Marc Dumont is the superintendent of East Central Francophone Education.