Highlights from the Personnel and Staff Services Committee (IV) meeting of February 3.
Class size limits are defined as:
Kindergarten 22 students
Grades 1 -3 24 students
Grades 4 – 12 30 students
Some secondary classes are exempt from the 30 student limit, e.g. band or choir, Planning 10 and distributed (online) learning.
As of October 15, the VSB had 1222 elementary classes and 6174 secondary classes. All elementary classes met the class size limits as did all the non-exempt secondary classes; there were 89 exempt classes that enrolled more than 30 students, 1.4% of all classes.
Class composition refers to the nature of the class in terms of students with Ministry designations.
For elementary classes there were 134 classes (11% of classes) with more than three Ministry designated students, two less than 2014, and there are five elementary schools with at least five classes with more than three Ministry designated students. These schools receive additional resources which could include funding for an extra teacher to allow smaller class sizes or additional in-class support.
The VSB uses the available funding to provide the best learning environments possible but because public education is underfunded we do have classes with more than three Ministry designated students, including some secondary classes where more than half the students have designations. I would very much like to see this change for the better.
Report: http://www.vsb.bc.ca/sites/default/files/16Feb03_op_commIV_item%201.pdf
The VSB is exploring the process of applying to be a Living Wage Employer. In Metro Vancouver the living wage is currently $20.68 per hour, which includes the base pay rate and e.g. extended health, MSP, sick leave and pension plan.
A potential challenge to becoming a Living Wage Employer is that as a public sector employer the district is subject to the Public Sector Employers Act. This means that any increases to salary structures must be approved by the Public Sector Employers’ Council (PSEC). The committee agreed that the VSB should ask PSEC if the VSB could raise salaries to meet the Living Wage Campaign’s requirements.
Report: http://www.vsb.bc.ca/sites/default/files/16Feb03_op_commIV_item%202.pdf
For full agenda and minutes (when posted) see: http://www.vsb.bc.ca/board-committees
Janet Fraser 