The Alberta Teachers’ Association

PEC POINTS

Highlights of the Provincial Executive Council meeting held Dec,1–2, 2016, at Barnett House in Edmonton

1. Directed table officers to draft a letter to the minister of education outlining concerns with the Student Learning Assessment program and the ministry’s lack of progress on a new assessment program; the expansion of international benchmarking with costs to taxpayers and increased workload of teachers; and the ministry’s continuation of an archaic provincial achievement testing program that does not reflect 21st-century learning and, to this point, its inaction on the Association’s request to cancel Grade 6 and 9 provincial achievement tests by Dec. 31, 2016.
   
   
2. Authorized a contribution to the Education International Solidarity Fund for EĞITIM-SEN in support of its efforts to provide legal assistance and financial aid to dismissed education personnel in Turkey.
   
   
3. Authorized a contribution to Equal Voice’s Daughters of the Vote to sponsor the participation of 12 emerging women leaders in a historic event that will bring 338 young women—one from every federal riding in Canada—to take their seats in the House of Commons in Canada’s Parliament on International Women’s Day in 2017.
   
   
4. Approved the 2017/18 program area budget recommendations and referred them to Finance Committee for costing.
   
   
5. Directed that the grant-in-aid rate for subsistence in the 2017/18 proposed budget be increased.
   
   
6. Approved an additional per-delegate allowance of $800 for each local with fewer than 225 members for each delegate in excess of four delegates who attend 2017 Summer Conference.
   
   
7. Approved in principle and referred to Resolutions Committee for processing for the 2017 Annual Representative Assembly (ARA) a resolution opposing any program that advocates for any person in the school to actively engage those who pose a threat to the safety of individuals in the school.
   
   
8. Approved in principle and referred to Resolutions Committee for processing for the 2017 ARA a resolution urging school boards to have a transparent budget system that ensures that funds for exceptionalities reach and support the students for whom the funds were intended.
    
9. Approved the names of individuals to serve as members of the election rules appeal panel and authorized the executive secretary, after consultation with the panel members, to identify one member as chair.
    
10. Amended the frame of reference for the Well-Being of Children and Youth Committee and authorized the development and implementation of an awareness campaign focusing on the detrimental effects of child and youth poverty on Alberta society.
     
11. Approved the names of 11 teachers for nomination to Alberta Education for curriculum work as the need arises.
     
12. Approved amendments to the standard constitution for convention associations.
     
13. Amended administrative guidelines regarding teachers’ conventions.
     
14. Amended frames of reference for the Edmonton Area Field Experiences Committee and the Lethbridge Area Field Experiences Committee.
     
15. Received the report of a hearing committee, which found a teacher guilty of three charges of unprofessional conduct for swearing at a student(s), making a threatening gesture towards a student(s), and threatening a student(s) thereby failing to treat a student(s) with dignity and respect, contrary to Article 4 of the Code of Professional Conduct. The investigated teacher entered a plea of guilty to the charges, and the hearing committee imposed the global penalty for all charges of a letter of reprimand and a fine of $500, payable within 90 days of receipt of the written notice.
    
    
16. Named field members to fill vacancies on Association and other external committees.