While few details were provided about the new deal that was reached tentatively between Chinook’s Edge School Division and the Alberta Teachers’ Association, the division’s superintendent of schools Kurt Sacher did say he was happy with how the talks went.

“We feel they went really well and they took a reasonable amount of time that you would expect for something of that complexity. But we’re pleased,” Sacher said.

“We like to think it’s a symptom of really good relationships between our teachers, our board, our central office. We work really hard to respect our teachers and work with them so we can keep our focus on quality learning environments in the classroom.”

The new collective agreement would apply to both teachers and administrators. It still needs to be ratified by both parties. Sacher was confident that will happen in February.

If so, the division says the contract would run until the end of August 2018.

Local bargaining came after the provincial government reached a “central table agreement” with the provincial ATA last May. Items negotiated under that deal would be incorporated into the local collective agreement.

Before that, Chinook’s Edge and the ATA had a four year agreement from 2012-16.