B.C. teachers ordered to write past report cards

British Columbia teachers have been ordered to write reports cards that weren't completed during recent job action, although the head of the teachers' union says some school districts have already agreed not to provide them.

Labour Relations Board associate chairman Michael Fleming ruled the reports must be forwarded to administrators by April 27, but said they can be abridged forms of what parents would typically get.

"Teachers will provide comments if there has been a significant change in student progress since the last term," Fleming said in the ruling issued Friday for reports pertaining to Grades 4 to 12 students.

For students in kindergarten to Grade 3, reports must cover achievement in six subjects such as language arts, arithmetic and social studies but school districts could develop a checklist instead, he said.

"We're disappointed," said Susan Lambert, president of the BC Teachers Federation.

The union argued at a hearing earlier this week against the April report cards, saying teachers have been providing parents with information about their children's progress during the job action that began last September.

Education Minister George Abbott said that along with the second-term report that parents will have by the end of the month, a complete report card will be issued in June as usual with more information.

"This will be a much more fulsome report card than the previous one that was undertaken, often with partial or very little information in it because of the teachers' strike," he said.

Lambert said the April report card will add to teachers' workload after they've kept parents informed of their children's progress.

"They know how their children are doing and right now, in our view, it would be best if teachers could fully focus on the final few months of instruction rather than this kind of manufactured controversy," Lambert said.

"But we have an order and we will be complying with it."

However, she said about 20 of 70 school districts came up with separate agreements that don't require teachers to issue full report cards or to issue only abridged ones, similar to Fleming's order.

Lambert said the deals were hatched after March 17, when the B.C. government imposed legislation to end the teachers' strike and appoint a mediator to try and end the dispute.

School districts with various types of report-card agreements include Vancouver, Richmond, Langley and Fort Nelson, Lambert said.

"This is not going to be universal, across the province," she said of Fleming's ruling.

"In terms of a labour relations standpoint, it's just not the right thing to do in an already-inflamed situation, to add to teachers' workload in a very onerous way on something that's not really necessary."

The report-card ruling was the second blow for the BCTF this week after an earlier labour board decision that rejected a request by the union to temporarily suspend its sessions with government-appointed mediator Charles Jago.

The union wanted the board to fire Jago, claiming he has no mediation experience and is biased in favour of the government.

However, the government has said the BCTF's application should go to the courts, not the labour board.

Meanwhile, the union revealed Friday that 73 per cent of teachers voted this week to withdraw from voluntary extracurricular activities such as coaching sports teams to keep up the fight against Bill 22, the legislation that stripped them of their right to strike.

Lambert said the vote sends a powerful message to the government to rethink the legislation.

But Premier Christy Clark said the vote was much lower than the teachers' union typically gets from its members on various issues.

"So it does suggest there's real discontent within the members of the union about withdrawing extracurricular services and support," she said.

"I think the reason for that is the best part of their day is supporting extracurricular activities," Clark said, adding that was the case for her father, a teacher who volunteered as a basketball coach.

"I don't think students should be pawns in a political fight," she said. "I think it's wrong."

Lambert suggested parents and administrators step in and help out with graduation activities that would have been done by teachers after school hours.