Minutes from November 15 General meeting

Tuesday, November 15, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Fish Hall

MINUTES

1.  Call to Order 6:50
2.  Adoption of the Agenda:  Moved E. Braid/Chrona, as amended         CARRIED
Adoption of Minutes of September 23, 2008: Moved E. Braid/Fox-Povey  CARRIED

3.  Presentation from BCTF Executive Committee:  Jill McCaffery
Moved Larson/Sawka:  That we move into committee of the whole, and that we     rise and report at the end of Jill’s remarks.                CARRIED
Rising out of committee, it was reported that FSAs were discussed.

4.  REPORTS
a) President (Gaby Bureau):  Discussed the FSA vote on Dec. 9-10, at each school     or the union office; visits will be made to each school to speak about this.      Comments about the idea of offering extra prep time or NIDs to new teachers,     mentioned at Board Meeting; they can’t do this without Bargaining, as it is part of     the Contract.  Working groups on School Closures and on Class Size and     Composition are ongoing; the School Closure group will be presenting to the     Board in December, the other group possibly in February.  New contract is now     ready, new Staff Room binders will be reappearing soon; this is not the 2006-    2011 contract, but an older version.  There have been some changes to Benefits.      Thanks to Nick Adey and Elliott Fox-Povey for the work they have done keeping     us informed during the Municipal Election.

b) Bargaining (Kathy Murphy):  Short comments on Contract and ongoing issues.

c) L.R. (Joanna Larson):  Comments on FSA vote, with information from the RA.

4.  OLD BUSINESS
a) Constitution and By-laws:  Notice of changes was given at the May 2008     General Meeting.  Moved Murphy/Larson, that we adopt the changes     recommended for By-Law 4.14.                     CARRIED
MOVED E. Braid/Elliot, that we adopt new By-law 5.9.        CARRIED
b) Health and Safety: working alone (Tamara Thompson).  Inconsistencies from     school to school, differing interpretations of various rules, etc., so some new     protocols have been issued.  Also a plea for violence reports to be filled in and     submitted, as many are not bothering to file these.

c) Secondary Rep. for Bargaining Committee – Joanne Chrona has volunteered.

5.  NEW BUSINESS
a) Provincial vote – covered above

b) Class size and composition and School closure working groups:  Please feel     free to participate, and fill in the surveys that come around or attend the meetings.
Moved E. Braid/Fox-Povey, that the PRDTU president investigate the possibility     of establishing an elementary segregated program(s) for students with exceptional     disabilities, and report back to the PRDTU Executive.        CARRIED

c) Motion for life-time membership:  Moved Larson/Jong-Bowles, that Susan     Crowley be inducted as a life-time member of the PRDTU.        CARRIED                                             unanimously
Moved Murphy/Konsmo, that the same be extended to Veronica Delorme.
CARRIED unanimously

d) Motion of support for Victoria teachers:  Moved Larson/Fox-Povey, that we     support the Victoria middle school teachers in their struggle for fair prep time.
CARRIED unanimously

e) Increase of administration time: an issue at one school was raised and     discussed.  Moved E. Braid/Larson, that the new .2 position for Math Makes     Sense be referred to the Grievance Committee.        CARRIED
Moved Larson/A.Braid, that we refer all increases in administrative time to the     Grievance Committee.                        CARRIED

6.  ANNOUNCEMENTS
a)  Christmas party December 6th, Highliner.  Tickets will be issued for sale next     week, and non-union members are welcome to purchase them.

7.  Adjournment:  moved E. Braid at 8:35.