The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Highlights of the Provincial Executive Council emergent meeting held Feb. 7, 2015, at Barnett House, in Edmonton

1. Named Geneviève Blais, an assistant principal in Calgary Roman Catholic Separate School District, and Fred Kreiner, an assistant principal in Grande Yellowhead Public School Division, to the two positions of executive staff officer, Teacher Welfare, effective March 1, 2015, or as soon as possible thereafter. They will fill the vacancies resulting from the retirement of Michael Kischuk and the departure of Peter Kalis to pursue other interests.

Highlights of the Provincial Executive Council meeting held March 2–3, 2015, at Barnett House, in Edmonton

1. Approved 163 Council resolutions, 31 local resolutions and eight resolutions jointly sponsored by Council and locals for presentation to the 2015 Annual Representative Assembly; assigned speakers to each resolution; and, in the case of local resolutions, approved recommendations of concurrence, amendment and concurrence, nonconcurrence, referral for study and report, or action taken. The package of resolutions will be sent to locals, which will be asked to vote on whether they agree with Council’s position on each resolution.
2. Directed the president to urge the minister of education to immediately establish a high-level steering committee of key partners to implement the key purposes of the student learning assessment program.
3. Directed the executive secretary to advise Association subgroup office holders of the implications of long-range policies 14.A.3 and 14.A.16 for their continuation in office as political party candidates. Policy 14.A.3 states that the Association avoids alignment with any political party or candidate for political office while policy 14.A.16 states that the Association and its subgroups are prohibited from making financial contributions to parties or candidates for political office.
4. Authorized implementation of a 2015 election readiness plan, with estimated costs charged to the Special Emergency Fund.
5. Clarified the potential focus of a public advocacy campaign in 2015/16 to encourage adequate pensions for all members of society.
6. Received the report of a hearing committee, which found a teacher guilty of three charges of unprofessional conduct for violating Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association rules by entering a volleyball team in a sanctioned tournament with four ineligible players, thereby failing to maintain the honour and dignity of the profession; for violating Alberta Schools’ Athletic Association rules by entering a volleyball team in a sanctioned tournament with four ineligible players, thereby acting in a manner detrimental to the best interests of students; and for collecting tournament entry fees from students that were never paid to the tournament organizers or reimbursed to the students, thereby failing to maintain the honour and dignity of the profession. To address all three charges, the hearing committee imposed the penalty of a single letter of reprimand.
7. Received the report of a hearing committee, which found a teacher guilty of three charges of unprofessional conduct for engaging in conduct for which the teacher was convicted of an indictable offence, to wit, that the teacher, being in a position of trust or authority toward or in a relationship of dependency with a student, a young person, did for a sexual purpose unlawfully touch directly or indirectly with a part of the body or with an object a part of the body of the student, contrary to section 153(1)(A) of the Criminal Code of Canada; for failing to treat students with dignity and respect and failing to be considerate of their circumstances by having an inappropriate relationship with a student; and for failing to act in a manner that maintains the honour and dignity of the profession by having an inappropriate relationship with a student that called into public question the dignity of the teaching profession. To address all three charges, the hearing committee imposed the penalty of declaring the teacher ineligible for membership in the Alberta Teachers’ Association and recommending to the minister of education cancellation of the teacher’s teaching certificate.
8. Authorized a contribution for the International Summit on the Teaching Profession, scheduled for March 28–30, 2015, in Banff.
9. Authorized the purchase of a table of seven and the attendance of up to seven members of Council at the Public Interest Alberta Annual Advocacy Conference, scheduled for April 9(eve)–11, 2015, in Edmonton.
10. Authorized the purchase of seven tickets to a Public Interest Alberta public lecture featuring award-winning documentary filmmaker and television journalist Avi Lewis and scheduled for April 8, 2015, in Calgary.
11. Increased, effective April 1, 2015, the Teacher Qualifications Service fee for basic evaluation from $70 to $75; the fee for re-evaluation from $120 to $130; and the fee for duplication and reproduction of transcript evaluations from $50 to $55 and from $20 to $25, respectively.
12. Approved the name of one teacher for addition to the curriculum name bank, which is used as a source of appointments to Alberta Education program, curriculum and student evaluation committees as the need arises. ❚