News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

By LeRae Haynes 

This summer the BC Federation of Teachers was involved with one of the biggest arbitration hearings in the history of the Federation. The topic was violations of the class-size and composition legislation introduced by the BC government in May 2006. 

That legislation stated that there would be no more than 30 students per classroom, and that there would be no more than three students in a classroom with special needs. 

According to a recent publication from the Teacher’s Federation, in the two school years after that legislation, there were thousands of classes that exceeded the 30-student rule and the composition rule. The arbitration hearing this summer was held in seven locations across the province and took 55 days. 

During the hearing, teachers, administrators and principals testified, and last month arbitrator Jim Dorsey issued a 354-page ruling. He set a standard on class size and composition, based on the sum of the total number of students with special needs in the classroom. For example, if there is a class on 29 kids, with 5 students with special needs (29+5=34) there is a significant additional burden of proof on the part of administrators that the class is, in fact, appropriate for student learning. 

“Class size makes a difference,” said retired elementary school principal and teacher Ken Berry. “We used to have up to 36 kids per classroom, and then it got moved down to 30. Big numbers in classrooms means less time for more kids. It also means that more time is given to the less-capable kids and less time to the more-capable kids.” 

 Ken Berry spent a total of 34 years with the School District, including 12 years in administration. He said that, class size notwithstanding, there are still many benefits to BC public education. “The number of kids is a positive benefit: you may have a large class but your have more resources,” he explained. “Small school and small classes equals smaller resources.” 

He said that another benefit to public education is that local public schools have fewer classroom splits in the town schools, and added that not having a split class means that there is one teaching element going on at once. 

He said that schools used to have more people doing more things for the kids. “Now there’re fewer and fewer resources for teachers to help kids. We always seemed to have at least two special needs kids in every classroom, but we always had support,” he explained. “Now there’s less support for that, too.” 

 Jim Dorsey made it clear in his ruling that individual, genuine communication with teachers is required in order to clearly address concerns about class size and composition. 

“I think communication between teachers and principals is everything,” Mr. Berry continued. “That way the principal knows what’s going on in the classroom and the teachers knows what’s going on in administration. It contributes to the overall confidence that the administration will come and ask a question before making a decision.”

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