The President of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation says she is cautiously optimistic that a potential accountability framework proposed by the province will get the two groups back to the bargaining table.

Samantha Becotte says the framework would provide accountability for how school divisions spend funds to address class size and complexity, the main sticking point for teachers in negotiations with the province.

“Restricted funds should be restricted to what their purpose is, and if school divisions aren’t compliant to that, then there should be a dispute resolution to ensure that there is a way to correct that decision,” she suggests.

Becotte says that back and forth conversations have been happening recently with the province, and the STF is committed to working through the holiday long weekend in an attempt to reach a deal as soon as possible. She hopes the two sides can return to the bargaining table as early as next week.

“It completely depends on that back-and-forth conversation that’s happening around the MOU. We appreciate that the government’s been willing to have a bit of a back-and-forth conversation to try and get this to a place that works for teachers and government and school boards, but most importantly, it needs to work for students.”

There are no details on what the accountability framework would actually look like, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill told reporters after question period Tuesday.

At a news conference this morning, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill announced that the government will step in to ensure all graduation ceremonies are able to take place, regardless of teacher job action. Becotte says instead of spending their energy and resources on organizing graduations, they should be focusing on negotiations with teachers, which would fix the problem entirely.

“While they’re making announcements about ensuring graduation happens, there is one way to ensure there are no future job actions, and that is come to the table in good faith. Work with teachers to find a resolution to the negotiations process.”