Local students are scheduled to start receiving report cards as early as next week, but what will be in those report cards is another matter.
Public school employers will ask the B.C. Labour Relations Board today to order teachers to write report cards for students this fall - despite their job action - and impose financial penalties on their union if they refuse.
Melanie Joy, president of the B.C. Public School Employers' Association, said her organization did not make the request in July, when the union's job action plan was approved by the Labour Relations Board, because it did not have the evidence it needed to prove that fall report cards are essential.
It expects to present that evidence to the labour relations board this week.
"Report cards are essential," Joy said in an interview with The Vancouver Sun, adding that the first reports in November provide early indications of how a student is doing and identifies those in need of extra help.
The request for a Labour Relations Board order follows an Education Ministry directive advising schools that report cards must be issued as usual, even if they contain little information, because three written reports are required by law.
"It is the ministry's expectation that a report card will be issued for each student this fall," deputy education minister James Gorman stated in an email to school superintendents. "If teachers refuse to produce report cards for their students, the statutory obligation remains for administrators (to do so)."
Preparing report cards would be challenging for principals and vice-principals since many teachers are also refusing to communicate with them or attend staff meetings as part of their job action. The B.C. Principals' and Vice-Principals' Association said report cards, prepared without teacher involvement, would contain little more than an attendance record.
John Woudzia, superintendent of schools for New Westminster, told The Record on Wednesday afternoon that senior administrators are holding a meeting next week to put together a plan for report cards.
"Our report card season is staggered, meaning report cards go out between early November to early December," said Woudzia. "We want to put together a plan on how to get report cards to our students."
Woudzia said he fully expects New Westminster to be in compliance with Gorman's order, but the report cards parents would receive would not be typical of what they have received in the past.
"There may not be a lot of substantive comment on the report cards," said Woudzia, who expects to personally provide support to principals and other senior administrators who have the responsibility of preparing the report cards.
Joy said earlier reports that her association wants to penalize individual teachers who refuse to prepare report cards were wrong. If the Labour Relations Board agrees, the penalties would be imposed on their union, the B.C. Teachers' Federation.
That would place pressure on the union to make concessions at the bargaining table, she said. While talks continue, both sides say there has been no progress since March 1. The union has suggested there won't be progress until the government lifts its net-zero mandate, allowing a pay increase that would bring B.C. salaries into line with those in Alberta and Ontario.
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