Members of the BC Teachers’ Federation have voted to ratify the agreement-in-committee reached on Tuesday, June 26, 2012 with the government’s bargaining agent, the BC Public School Employers’ Association.

In a province-wide vote conducted June 27–29, 2012, a total of 21,044 teachers cast ballots and 75% voted yes. The turnout rate was 52%.

http://www.bctf.ca/NewsReleases.aspx?id=27387

[Matt Pearce, president of the Prince George District Teachers Association] said despite the positive acceptance of the new contract many teachers still have concerns that weren’t addressed.

“It may be back to normal but I still think there are a lot of teachers who are very disappointed the issues around class size and composition that can really affect our students haven’t been touched, even a little bit,” said Pearce. “In fact things are likely to get worse next year. I think some teachers will continue to not do extracurricular [activities], but it’ll be a personal choice and not done as a vote of the membership.”

http://www.princegeorgecitizen.com/article/20120629/PRINCEGEORGE0101/306299979/-1/princegeorge/teachers-say-yes-to-new-contract

In related news, the BC Supreme Court issued a ruling on Friday regarding the BCTF court application to remove Charles Jago as mediator. The BCTF petition was dismissed. The text of the decision is available here:

http://www.courts.gov.bc.ca/jdb-txt/SC/12/09/2012BCSC0960.htm