School boards create voluntary bargaining association
As reported in the April 5 Edmonton Journal, 12 school boards have joined a voluntary bargaining authority. The boards are: Aspen View Regional Division, Buffalo Trail Public Schools, Christ the Redeemer Catholic, Foothills School Division, Greater Southern Public Francophone, Holy Spirit Roman Catholic, Lakeland Catholic Separate Regional Division, Livingstone Range School Division, Medicine Hat Catholic, Pembina Hills Regional Division, Prairie Land Regional Division and Wetaskiwin Regional Division.

What's being said about education in the legislature...

About the unfunded pension liability and school boards
(Page 354 Hansard, April 2)
April 2, the legislature passed this motion: “Be it resolved that the Legislative Assembly urge the Government to recognize the unfunded liability in the Teachers’ Pension Plan and immediately initiate negotiations on options for a reasonable long term solution to the teachers’ unfunded pension liability issue.”

Minister of Education Ron Liepert said, “…. this particular issue is all about recruitment and retention. It’s all about encouraging our best young students to enter the teaching profession and keeping them there. That’s why we’re going to address this issue. We’re not going to address it for political reasons, as this hon. member keeps talking about. As we stand here today, Mr. Speaker, we have an agreement that was signed in 1992 by the Alberta government and by the Alberta Teachers’ Association in good faith. We’re going to try and improve upon that agreement, but at the end of the day, if we don’t get improvement on that agreement, we have an agreement in place, and if that’s the resolution, then we’ll stick with it. What we have before us, Mr. Speaker, is an agreement that will be negotiated. It will take some time, and we will do it fairly, and it will be done with the Alberta Teachers’ Association.

There was some mention about school boards. We would be happy to have input from school boards, but let’s make it clear that school boards’ responsibilities are to negotiate salaries with ATA locals, to negotiate contracts with their ATA locals. The unfunded pension liability is an agreement between the Alberta government and the Alberta Teachers’ Association, and that’s how it will be addressed."

About the upcoming budget and funding for public education
Liepert said, “I want to just very briefly touch upon some of the comments that were made relative to somehow, because we’ve got this unfunded liability, it’s taking money out of the education system. Well, that is just – well, I won’t say what that is. We spent in this province over $5 billion in this budget year, and I suggest that it’ll probably increase when the Minister of Finance brings down his budget on April 19. That’s some $27.9 million per school day on education in Alberta. So to somehow leave the impression that students’ education is not being served because we have this 1992 agreement in place is just not correct.”

About the role of school boards in school closures
(Page 298, Hansard, March 22 )
Liepert said, "Mr. Speaker, under the School Act the decision whether to close schools or not is in the hands of the public school boards. If we start meddling in what the school boards are elected to do, these would be the first people who would be telling us that we should be staying out of the decisions of the local school boards."

CSBA provides key messages in support of exempting school boards from GST
While a Federal Finance Committee recommended the government fully rebate the GST to school boards – this did not occur in the recent federal budget. In the wake of this development, the Canadian School Boards Association has prepared key messages for school boards to lobby for school board exemption. See page 2 of the March 23 Canadian School Boards Association InfoPics newsletter.

School board wants leadership candidates to declare they are running 14 days before the election
Prairie Rose School Division wants the ASBA's bylaws changed to require that candidates for ASBA president and vice-president must declare their plans to run 14 days before the election. Currently candidates do not have to declare their intent. School boards will vote on this proposed change and the ASBA' s proposed 2007-2008 budget at the Spring General Meeting in June. See the issues and bylaws bulletin.