‘Red for Ed’ Solidarity Walk held in Vegreville

 Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

A contingent of teachers, students and community members walked together in solidarity on Oct. 15 in Vegreville.

The first to arrive at the designated meeting place outside the Vegreville Centennial Library were two teachers from Sherwood Park. Jonathon Thomas and Jeremy Cooper said they wanted to support their colleagues and shared some of their thoughts on the teachers’ strike and reasons behind it.   

“Over the last decade or so we’ve seen a continual decline in the conditions in the classrooms in terms of how difficult they are to manage, and how complex they are, the resources that have been allocated to support students and their needs. And so, as our society gets more complex, as our population grows, as it becomes more diverse, we need to make sure that our public education system is funded to the level that is equal to support and manage that. So, that’s what it’s really all about. Making sure conditions are in place to make sure that kids get the education that they deserve,” stated Thomas.

Thomas elaborated on the complex needs, saying, “We’ve seen a significant number of children come into our classrooms that are English language learners with various learning difficulties, increased rates of students with autism, and these are all things teachers are trained to manage and want to help students with who are in these situations, but if there are too many, and there aren’t enough supports to work with each of these students and give them the time they deserve, those students are essentially going to be left behind simply because the teacher doesn’t have enough hours in the day to actually provide those kinds of supports.”

Cooper said, “The whole complexity, happens to all of the students and families in the division. So, I see a lot of mental health issues as well. Again, schools are there to support those needs, but it’s just the numbers. So, having school counsellors, having teachers to support kids, and they’re trained and ready to do that, we just see the numbers and that has made it difficult to manage.”

St. Martin’s Catholic School Principal Darby Murphy offered his own insights into the situation. “I think the biggest reason for our classrooms, particularly here in Vegreville is the classroom complexity. I’ve been teaching now for about 10 or 11 years, and to see that change so drastically, for a variety of different reasons; but to see some of our teachers have to handle students with a variety of needs.

For example, in a Grade 6 classroom there are kids that have a variety of needs from kids who are gifted and ahead of the curve to kids who are at maybe a Grade 1, Grade 2 reading level. For one teacher to handle 25-30 kids of that magnitude. As a Principal, even having to cover a class you get to see those kids in a 40-minute period for maybe a minute. It’s so difficult when you know they have those extra needs that are not being met. That’s probably the biggest thing here.

The other thing, too, is for people to realize is that the offer that has happened from the government, in the rural community we will not see an extra teacher, most of those will go to the higher density areas, which makes sense to a certain degree, but that’s a big reason why.”

For me, the main thing is that it is not about right now, it’s about the future of education. I’m seeing teacher coming into their career and burning out within four to five years and they are gone. Public education matters a lot.”

Allison Moroz has been teaching for around 14 years and currently teaches at Vegreville Composite High School. She has taught every grade, currently high school and junior high, but also special needs and options.

“We’re striking because of the complexity and the needs in the classroom. It’s not as much about the wage increase. Of course, we’d like to make sure we are being compensated for our work fairly, but it’s more about the fact that we are not getting supported as far as resources.  

Local 42 Registered Nurses of Alberta representative Katelyn Evans said, “We were almost going to go on strike ourselves, but we didn’t have to. We wanted to be here to support teachers because they deserve what they are asking for. We want to get class sizes capped, we want to see an increase amount of funding happen, and we want to see our government really care about education. That’s why we’re here, to stand with the teachers.”