Some might think the BC Teachers鈥� Federation鈥檚 new president-elect Teri Mooring has her work cut out for her.
With the first contract negotiations since a bitter five-week strike in 2014 underway and a controversial funding review ongoing, the challenges are clear.
But once you get to know Mooring, even a little bit, you get the sense those hurdles won鈥檛 get the best of her.
Mooring, 56, was a Grade 6 and 7 teacher for 20 years at, as she puts it, 鈥渁 fairly high-needs school,鈥� in Quesnel, a town of about 10,000 people on the road between Williams Lake and Prince George in B.C.鈥檚 Cariboo region.
In her teens, she worked at the town鈥檚 pulp and paper mill, where her father was the local union president. Her mother was a teacher and she says both parents highly valued education. They always instilled in her the belief that she would need a career and to look after herself.
After high school, she went to the College of New Caledonia in Prince George and then got married and had the first of her three children.
Soon after, she qualified with her teaching certification at the Simon Fraser University campus in Prince George. Teachers didn鈥檛 need a full degree at that time, but over the next eight years, she completed hers at SFU and had two more children.
Throughout, she was teaching young adolescents, raising her own children and serving as a union staff representative. After teachers in B.C. unionized in 1988, there wasn鈥檛 a year she didn鈥檛 have a position within the union, she said.
After finishing her bachelor鈥檚 degree, she promised her kids she would wait until they finished Grade 12 before pursuing her master鈥檚 degree.
But then the University of Northern B.C. offered a masters in counselling and curriculum and she couldn鈥檛 resist.
鈥淚 had to do it,鈥� she says. 鈥淲ith apologies to my children.鈥�
Mooring鈥檚 two adult children, Josh and Jasmine, live in Dawson Creek. Josh has two daughters, Emma and Sydney. Her youngest child, son Colby, was killed in a car accident at age 17 in 2006.
When she embarked on her educational journey, she says she 鈥渘ever had any inkling鈥� she would be leading the province鈥檚 43,000 teachers one day.
鈥淚 never anticipated in a million years that I would end up being the BCTF president,鈥� Mooring said. 鈥淚鈥檝e learned not to limit myself. That鈥檚 not meant to sound arrogant, it鈥檚 just that a lot of unanticipated things have happened along the way that I could never have predicted.鈥�
For fun, Mooring does hot yoga, runs along the seawall and is a passionate reader.
She takes over from BCTF president Glen Hansman when his three-year term ends in June. Hansman and Mooring were both elected as BCTF members at large in 2009.
At the time, Mooring was president of the teachers鈥� association in Quesnel, a post she held for five years. Hansman was president of the 麻豆传媒映画Elementary School Teachers鈥� Association (VESTA). They didn鈥檛 know each other well, but Hansman remembers visiting her office.
鈥淚t was a different world than what I had known at VESTA in that she was the only person in the Quesnel office, which was a small thing beside the highway with only one way in and out of the office, and where she had to do everything,鈥� Hansman said.
He says Mooring will 鈥渄o great things as president.鈥�
鈥淭eri knows her values. [She鈥檚] smart, tenacious, articulate, thoughtful, and committed to public education, teachers, teaching as a profession, and the students we serve,鈥� Hansman said.
In the few months remaining before taking over the helm, Mooring is the co-lead negotiator in the teachers鈥� collective bargaining for their contract, which expires June 30.
She says a wage increase is really critical, because of the shortage of teachers in rural areas and the shortage of teachers on call across the province.
鈥淲hat we are continuing to see, because of that, is that students with special needs are being asked to stay home when their teacher or educational assistant is ill,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e also continuing to see specialist teachers are being pulled from their jobs to fill in for classrooms and that means students with special needs continue to lose out on programming and supports. That鈥檚 still an issue everywhere.鈥澛犅�
There are hundreds of people teaching in B.C. classrooms today who don鈥檛 have a teaching certification 鈥� a number that has quadrupled since the teachers鈥� court win in 2016, Mooring said.
For the first time, BCTF can bargain provincially for class size caps 鈥� there is no provincial language for Grades 4 to 12 and some districts don鈥檛 have their own rules. As far as the number of students with special needs who can be in a single class, 20 of the province鈥檚 60 districts have no rules, while 20 have really strong rules and another 20 could see improvement, she said. Making that equitable is 鈥渒ey at the negotiation table,鈥� Mooring said.
Earlier this year, the province put a one-year hold on implementing proposed changes to the funding for students with special needs, from a per-student basis to a so-called 鈥減revalence model,鈥� based on averages.
鈥淎t our AGM, the prevalence model for funding special education was a topic of big concern and teachers are very united on opposing that model,鈥� she said. 鈥淧art of the issue is that the education funding review panel didn鈥檛 consider increasing the funding for special education. If you couple that with a prevalence model, we have a lot of concerns.鈥�
Mooring is very encouraged by the recent doctor鈥檚 settlement in B.C., which includes 8.8 per cent increases over three years and contains money for recruitment and retention, she said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 all kinds of creative things that could be put in place and we鈥檇 really like to see some of that,鈥� Mooring said.
Ideas include loan forgiveness, tuition repayment or other strategies to attract teachers to the province.
They鈥檝e held 20 bargaining sessions so far, with 40 more scheduled before the end of June. Mooring is optimistic a deal will be done by then.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 lots of time for us to get a deal,鈥� Mooring said.
The province鈥檚 538,000 public school students, their parents and their teachers all certainly hope she鈥檚 right.
