Labour peace and a shovel in the ground.
That's what New Westminster school trustees hope will happen in 2012 as the school district embarks on what may be the most ambitious capital project in the province.
"I'm very optimistic that we'll be moving forward with the capital project," said school trustee Casey Cook. "I'm really optimistic that by the middle or the end of summer, we'll have shovels in the ground for the new (elementary) school at the St. Mary's site."
With the city and district agreeing to the land swaps that were necessary to move the project forward, the biggest remaining obstacle is for the Ministry of Education to approve a project agreement for the new schools. That announcement may come early in 2012.
Cook said it's taken quite some time to get to this point - a middle school and a replacement for the high school are the next phases of the project - but people shouldn't worry about the past and should concentrate on the future.
"Optimistically, I think it will be at least five years before we have the new high school," he said, "but since all three schools are design-build, we're hoping to cut down on the time to build all three schools."
Design-build, in construction lingo, is a process where design and construction services are provided by a single contractor.
Of more immediate concern to Cook is getting labour peace.
While the Canadian Union of Public Employees quietly agreed to a two-year contract for school support workers that will take them to June 2012 - workers still need to ratify the agreement - teachers have been in a stalemate with the province.
"We need to get labour peace," said Cook. "When you look at the CUPE settlement, you see how creative both parties were at getting a deal done quietly."
Newly elected trustee Jonina Campbell is in an interesting position because her day job is as a teacher in Richmond, meaning she is a B.C. Teachers' Federation member as well.
She said the CUPE deal was interesting because it showed that a negotiated settlement is possible if both sides are willing to work at it.
"All I can hope for is that in the new year, both sides can come together and reach a deal," she said.
CUPE's deal includes: no concessions for CUPE members; $7.5 million in new, ongoing funding to recognize and correct unpaid work for education assistants from the government's class organization fund; $550,000 in new funding for the support staff education and adjustment committee for skills enhancement; $200,000 in financial support to solidify a framework for provincial bargaining; CUPE gaining access to sector demographic and classification information for research purposes; and a wage reopener clause in case the public sector net-zero wage mandate changes over the life of the agreement.
Meanwhile, the B.C. Teachers' Federation and its employer, the B.C. Public Schools Employers' Association, have been at loggerheads, with the teachers asking for, among other things, wage parity with Alberta and Ontario teachers - which translates to a hike of more than 20 per cent.
The employers' association has countered with threatening teachers with a 15 per cent salary and benefit rollback - recently denied by a B.C. Labour Relations Board ruling - for teachers refusing to write report cards, supervise students outside of instructional hours, attend staff meetings, complete paperwork or collect students' fees.
The employers' association has costed out the teachers' union demands at almost $2 billion.
Cook said the acrimony between the teachers' federation and the employers' association is something both sides have to put behind them.
"I know it's difficult to put the genie back into the bottle, and there are a lot of things that can't be unsaid," said Cook.
"But I'm really hoping there's a willingness on both sides to creatively reach an agreement," he added.
For more on the teachers' dispute issue from local teachers' union president Grant Osborne, see related story on page 5.
