The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Highlights of the Provincial Executive Council meeting held April 13 and 14, 2015, at Barnett House, in Edmonton

1. Nominated President Mark Ramsankar for the position of vice-president of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF) for 2015/16.
2. Nominated President Mark Ramsankar (alternate Past President Carol Henderson) and executive secretary Gordon Thomas as Association members of the CTF Board of Directors for 2015/16.
3. Nominated Greg Meeker for reappointment as an Association representative on the Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board for an additional four-year term.
4. Approved, for submission to the 2015 Annual Representative Assembly, resolutions urging school authorities and accredited post-secondary institutions to ensure that preservice observations and evaluations are conducted only by assigned co-operating teachers and faculty consultants/advisors and urging accredited post-secondary institutions to ensure that preservice observations or evaluations are conducted by individuals who are physically present during all observations or evaluations and who are familiar with the specific context of the learning situation.
5. Authorized a meeting of table officers and the executive officers of the Building Trades of Alberta and the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.
6. Appealed to the Professional Conduct Appeal Committee on the grounds of insufficient penalty the decision of a hearing committee. The hearing committee had found a teacher guilty of three charges of unprofessional conduct for initiating a petition against the school administration of a school attended by the teacher’s child and circulating said petition to parents in the school community, thereby failing to protest through proper channels administrative policies and practices that the teacher cannot in conscience accept; for sending emails critical of teachers to individuals who were not proper officials, thereby failing to protest through proper channels administrative policies and practices that the teacher cannot in conscience accept; and for initiating a petition against school administration and sending emails critical of teachers to improper individuals, thereby failing to maintain the honour and dignity of the profession. The hearing committee had imposed the penalty of one letter of severe reprimand to address the first two charges and another letter of severe reprimand to address the third charge. The reprimands were to be addressed in a single letter.
7. Authorized the provision of an interest-free loan to the Calgary City Teachers’ Convention Association.
8. Awarded the Alberta Teachers’ Association Doctoral Fellowship in Education, the John Mazurek Memorial–Morgex Insurance Scholarship and the Nadene M Thomas Graduate Research Bursary.
9. Directed the Association to ensure that its future surveys in which gender information is relevant provide respondents with an opportunity to choose among male, female, transgender, not listed and prefer not to answer.
10. Approved the names of nine teachers for reappointment and eight teachers for addition to the Retirement Consultants name bank, which is used as a source of appointments to the Retirement Consultants corps as the need arises.
11. Notwithstanding administrative guidelines, authorized one teacher to serve a 10th year as a retirement consultant.
12. Named a field member to represent the Association on the Alberta French Language Education Consortium. ❚