What is Local Bargaining?

As teachers in the South-East Kootenays the terms and conditions of our employment with SD5 are laid out in a collective agreement. This contract is a “melded” document, composed of a broad agreement between the BCTF and BCPSEA and a more narrow agreement between the FDTA, CDTA, and School District 5.

Every three years both the local and provincial agreements are renegotiated. At the provincial level the BCTF advocates for salary increases, class size and composition policies, workload policies, professional development funding, and similar. At the local level the FDTA and CDTA advocate for fair and equitable hiring policies, local Health and Safety initiatives, and policies concerning transfers, leaves, layoffs, recall, seniority, etc. within our district.

The majority of the time both the local and provincial bargaining teams will reach tentative agreements with our employers after a few months of discussion. At this point members will vote to ratify each of the proposed agreements. If the majority of members favor both agreements they will be melded to form the Collective Agreement which will apply in SD5 over the following three years.

Bargaining 2021

Your Agreement with SD5

This is the local and provincial matters agreement. It contains common articles bargained between the BCTF and BCPSEA and local articles bargained between the FDTA/CDTA and the SD5 Board of Education. It also contains a number of “letters of understanding”, indicating agreement between the union and employer as to how the articles should be interpreted.

If you believe that the CA is being violated in any way please contact your staff rep or the FDTA office.

(NB: This is the previous CA, which was effective through June 2019. A new agreement was bargained through March of 2020 and the BCTF and FDTA voted to ratify the provincial and local portions respectively in April of 2020. The new document will be posted here as soon as possible.)

Financial Support for Pro D

The FDTA financially supports members in their professional development. This includes support for individual members pursuing Pro D in- or out of the district and groups of members hosting Pro D events in their schools. Please use the forms below in order to apply for support.

As noted in the application form it is expected that teachers receiving financial support will share information about a conference they attend or an activity they pursue with colleagues. As a result there are currently ~25 active reports on file with FDTA for your interest. See the FDTA archives tab for more information.

Self Directed Pro D

Important Dates for Pro D

Scholarship Information

Each year the FDTA awards as many as 3 $800 scholarships to dependents of members. If you are the dependent of an FDTA member and will graduate from a public Canadian high school in 2022 you are eligible to make an application for one of these scholarships.

In the event that more than three students apply the scholarship will be awarded on the basis of your academic success. Accordingly, you'll be asked for a copy of your latest report card, generally the third report you receive in grade 12.

Applications are to be completed and submitted to the FDTA office by the 01 May.  Please see the attached document and application for below for more information. 

Reports of the FDTA Executive and Members

Annals of FDTA history

Coming Soon!

Mentor / Mentee Form

Hello FDTA Members

 I would like to introduce an additional opportunity for mentorship. If you are interested in applying, please read this email carefully as well as instructions on the accompanying application form (below).  This form will be posted on the FDTA website, shortly. Please fill out the form completely and accurately to prevent processing delays.

Currently there are two types of mentorship available.

The two types are :

SD5/CFTA -- Mentor/Mentee Pair

• This is from Article D.30 – and it has been ongoing for sometime
• I put out a notice in September  with the forms
• It is meant for teacher pairs
• If a pair of teachers wants one day each of mentorship -- this is their first application
• contact the president for forms (fdta01@gmail.com)

FDTA 45K Mentorship

• This is new
• It is a one-time lump sum of money ($45,000) from last round of bargaining
• Completed applications are sent to the office manager, Rhonda  fdta@shaw.ca

FDTA 45K MENTORSHIP APPLICATIONS

Their are two parts to the FDTA 45K Mentorship:

• Part A – for a pair of teachers that have already accessed SD5/CFTA mentorship pairing and would like an additional, one extra day, each
• Part B – mentoring for a group (3 or more teachers) up to 4 days total for the group.

Everyone must request a TTOC unless they plan to be in charge of their class during mentoring.

Note: a pair of teachers uses Part A while a group of 3 or more teachers uses Part B. Any one teacher may access only one part (Part A or Part B) per school year.

The committee will meet every second Tuesday of the month to approve mentoring projects.  Our first meeting date will be 14 December.

After applications are approved they will sent to Rhonda and she will send out a second form in order to generate a release letter. A release letter is the Union's agreement to pay the District for the TTOC that will replace you while on mentorship. It is also required when you book off on the SRB.

• Complete and  be sure to indicate date(s).
• Be sure to indicate if it is full day(s) or half day(s) (a.m. or p.m.) that the mentor pair or mentor group wants to be released. (This is not like the SD5-CFTA Mentor/Mentee Pair -- the dates of mentorship are not needed by the Union).

Once the release letter is returned to you (to your personal email only), you will need to attach it to your SRB leave application.

• please be sure to choose A.21. CFTA as the the type of leave
• do not choose (1) A.21. BCTF or (2) “Mentorship Pair”.

Sorry for being pedantic but please follow instructions and complete all information requested!