From Big White, near Kelowna, to Christina Lake, in the Kootenays, the Boundary District Teachers’ Association spans more than 200 km. Despite the physical distance between schools, the local has managed to engage members effectively, creating a community of professionals reflective of the community-centred approach taken by each school in the local.
The community feel is a big part of the draw for teachers in the Boundary local. Parents and community members are involved in the schools in big and small ways throughout the entire school year. From weeding, harvesting, and drying produce grown in school gardens, to supporting trades programs in the schools and volunteering for school and classroom events, parents take a great deal of pride in their community schools.
“A lot of parents are alumni from these same schools, so there is a sense that the school is part of the family’s tradition,” shared Denise Herdman, learner support teacher at Boundary Central Secondary School.
Denise herself is a graduate of Boundary Central Secondary (where her mom, Susan Baird, was the secretary for more than 20 years), and was happy to move back to Midway after living in Calgary and Vancouver for several years. Now, Denise gets to go to work alongside her sons, who are students at the same school.
Living in the Boundary region is a family tradition for many teachers here. Janine Fraser, Local President, spent her childhood visiting grandparents in the region, and Jamie Stewart, elementary teacher and outdoor education co-ordinator, grew up here. Both Janine and Jamie taught in the Lower Mainland before settling in the Boundary region. The reason? Affordability, family ties, and, of course, access to nature.
Every school in this local has easy access to nature and plenty of opportunities for outdoor education. At West Boundary Elementary, Emma Boyd has an outdoor day every week with her class.
Although the school has an outdoor classroom, school garden, and a natural growth section of the school yard (an area that is not mowed and where native plants are left to thrive), often the outdoor day is spent in the forest just behind the school, or at one of the offsite land-based learning sites the school has partnerships with, including the West Boundary Community Forest and the ski hill.
Outdoor education is a big part of Jamie’s work in the school district. When he first started teaching at John A. Hutton Elementary in Grand Forks, he started incorporating outdoor education into his classroom practice. Eventually, he moved into a new role as district outdoor education co-ordinator. He now spends two days in his classroom at Hutton Elementary and two days collaborating with teachers around the district on outdoor education. In the warmer months, outdoor days can include local hikes, working in community gardens, catching crayfish, building mountain bike trails, playing forest games, or learning about Indigenous cultures. In the winter months, the classes focus on survival skills and ski skills.
“I didn’t realize until I was doing it that outdoor education is my passion,” said Jamie, who unintentionally followed in his dad’s footsteps. Jamie’s dad, who is now 83 years old, spent most of his 40-year teaching career in the Boundary district where he taught outdoor education as a prep teacher.
Jamie noted that he gained the confidence to start outdoor days with his students from colleagues he met in the Environmental Educators’ Provincial Specialist Association (EEPSA) and the Columbia Basin Environmental Education Network (CBEEN). He now gets to take students to camping spots and trails that he ventured over as a child and teenager himself.
Being in nature is a big part of teachers’ lives outside of their classrooms as well. Staff get together to go mountain biking or hiking outside of school hours to have an opportunity to connect and create a professional community.
At Grand Forks Secondary, the professional community is also supported by a strong history of mentorship. One in five teachers at this high school completed their teaching credentials in the West Kootenay Teacher Education Program (WKTEP). The WKTEP specifically sets students up for success in rural teaching environments with an emphasis on place-based learning and community.
“I get to work alongside my teacher mentors and my former mentees,” said Mat Houlton, Grand Forks Secondary teacher. “It creates a multigenerational professional family.”
Mat shared that having teacher candidates in the school building creates opportunities for productive conversations, and that in turn fosters a culture of reflective practice that supports professional growth.
Teachers new to their role are also supported through a mentorship program where they get release time to visit their mentor or mentee and observe each other’s teaching. This mentorship program is instrumental in helping members feel connected to one another in an area that is so spread out; it’s also important for professional growth.
In a small local like this, geographically far from urban centres, professional growth opportunities in the form of professional development (PD) conferences or courses can seem limited. However, that is not the case. Denise is the local PD chair and shared that the Boundary District Teachers’ Association is proud to support members’ professional growth with $3,000 of PD funds per member per year. This allows teachers to pursue PD that may be a bit further away and make autonomous decisions about their PD needs.
“I’ve attended so many conferences that I wouldn’t have expected to be able to attend,” said Emma. “The local is really supportive of newer members attending conferences, BCTF events, and participating in the local.”
Emma, who is in her third year of teaching in the Boundary district, is now the bargaining chair for her local. A role she feels confident taking on because of the support she receives from her Local President, fellow executive committee members, and colleagues in schools across the local.
“The executive is looking to bring in newer teachers and include them,” said Mat. “We want to make sure there is a continuum of leadership at the local level.”
The local has recently sent out a bargaining survey to learn more about what members’ bargaining priorities are for the upcoming round and what challenges they would like to address.
Like all parts of the province, teaching in this local is not without challenges. Environmental crises have caused chaos at times. In September, a forest fire near Grand Forks closed Highway 3 for a short time, while a windstorm in Christian Valley closed part of Highway 33, leaving some students unable to get home for several hours after school.
Another key challenge that affects students and their families is the limited access to services in the region.
“Families can have a very hard time accessing services and supports, which is impactful, especially in the early years,” said Janine.
Without easy access to pediatricians, occupational therapists, and other professionals, families must travel to Kelowna or Vancouver for assessment and support. This exacerbates the long delays for getting designations that already exist in the rest of the province.
The Boundary School District has adopted a unique four-day work week to help accommodate the travel that is needed for students and teachers to attend appointments. The four longer days of school each week are also helpful for students who have long commutes to get to school. For example, Beaverdell is a small community that is approximately a one-hour bus ride away from Rock Creek. Beaverdell has a one-room schoolhouse for Kindergarten to Grade 3 students, but after Grade 3, students must travel to Rock Creek to finish elementary school, and then travel to Midway for high school.
“Having Friday off helps kids get through their long commute,” shared Denise.
The four-day work week is also an important recruitment and retention piece for the district. Even though many teachers have some very long days due to extracurriculars on top of the already longer school day, the four-day work week is still viewed favourably. Teachers who volunteer to coach sports at their school work late into the evening, or work on their day off, because they must travel with their school teams out of the district for games each week. The district is too small to have multiple sports teams in each age category, so the only option is to travel to other districts for competition.
The travel doesn’t seem to deter teachers and students though. The sports scene is thriving at each school in the district. Schools also offer a range of other extracurriculars, including e-sports and musical theatre.
In a rural local like Boundary, teachers find themselves representing the school every day and everywhere they go. The community knows them first and fore-most as the teacher, and there aren’t many places you can go without being recognized. While this sounds like a challenge to those of us from urban centres around the province, all the teachers included in this profile mentioned they didn’t mind it.
The small community means you know each student, family, and colleague; you know their history; you know what they need; you know how to help; and you know there will be people to help if you need it. Ultimately, this is the biggest draw for the teachers volunteering for their local union in this region.
“I love the sense of community and the people,” said Janine. “You feel you’re not alone.”
