Page 2, January 21, 1979-SundayNews —— -

Teachers, tears

by PeterS ‘neck

and laughter

The. bleating of the teachers and administrators
of the North’ Vancouver district brings tears to my
eyes. Tears of laughter. These frequently un-
derworked and overpaid public employees have
hoodwinked us all into supporting what must be
one of the cushiest bureaucracies around.

I know this is going to
bring the wrath of every one

‘ of them down around my-

head, but I calls ‘em as I sees
‘em. And I sees many of ‘em
making a lot of money and
not domg a hell of a lot of
. work.

True, there are some good
teachers and administrators,
and they may work hard,
and some of them may evén
work long hours. But the
majority of teachers te
administrators, in
opinion, have a soft berth
indeed. And now they're

howling for more money.
My money. .

(604) 980-0511

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North Shore Hews, founded
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tatuse coments 1979 North Shore
Free Preve Lad Ali ngnts reserved

—

They have the strongest
and most militant union
around. The B.C. Teacher's
Federation is a well-financed

and well-organized pressure .

group, and a teacher who
‘goes against it simply
becomes unemployed.

The lowest paid teacher in
our school system, with the
least credentials, makes over
$1,000 per month; and the
highest paid teacher (with a
master’s degree or
equivalent) makes over
$1400 per month. And that is
based on a_ twelve-month
year. In fact, all teachers
work less than 200 days per
year.

By contrast, a person

employed in the work force’

and taking two week
holidays a year works 251
days per year. Teachers get
the summer months off, get
a long break at Christmas
and another at Easter (this
year it will be five days, plus
of .course the weekend at
either end). They get a
statutory holiday every
month, like all bureaucrats.
And then they take
‘professional days’!

The professional days (I
think there are five or six
every school year) were
intended to give the teachers
a chance to talk with their
colleagues and catch up with
the latest happenings in the

school world. They arte
supposed to be spent in
school.

By marvelous coin-
cidence, they always seem to
occur just before long

weekends, and judging from
the amount of teachers I see
in restaurants on
‘professional days’ I would
be willing to bet that very
few of them spend the day in
school. It seems to be more
like Whistler or Mount

handmade
20 %

MT CERAMIC CENT

WEST VANCOUVER

Las aie

’

Baker in the winter and
some other nice place in the
summer, and a cafe if there's
no Snow or not enough sun.

Teachers work from 9 AM
to 3 PM. A few keep longer
hours, especially when they
are green and still working
up their lectures. Some
spend parts of their evenings
marking homework, I un-
derstand, but I think that the
majority of teachers work
five to seven hours a day and
that's it. They have generous
benefit packages to look
after their kid's teeth and
their health problems. All in
all I think it's a pretty soft
touch.

The bureaucracy of the
system is even better paid. A
few years ago, when there
were about five hundred toa
thousand more students in
North Vancouver than there
are now, we made do with
one school superintendent
and an assistant. Now, with
declining student
enrollment, we have a
‘superintendent, who makes
over $5,000 per month, and
four _ assistant superin-
tendents who make over
$4,000 per month—each.
Principals make about
$40,000 per year.

I think that it is high time |

that the public had a long
and critical look at the way
our school system is being
run. The trustees, who are
elected by the taxpayers to
represent their interests, are
in fact largely pro-teacher
and pro-administration, and
the system doesn't work, in
my opinion.

Many teachers are critical
of the size of the school
bureaucracy and its
clumsiness, but they are
intimidated by the system
and unable to make any
changes to it.

1] hope that changes are
made. No one needs to
suffer and I'm not pointing
the finger at any individual,
but this is one of the classic
cases where a large and well-
organized bureaucracy is
giving the taxpayers the
gears, and I don’t like it.

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