As the self imposed end of June deadline passes with no deal in sight both sides in teacher contract talks have now scheduled new bargaining dates and brought in some outside help.

Incoming BCTF President Teri Mooring says bargaining dates have been scheduled through August and talks will now go into Labour Relations Board governed mediation.

“The employer went to the Labour Relations Board and requested mediation and they informed us of that. We are happy with that process. The two parties had been talking about a facilitated process but that was relatively undefined whereas the LRB process is much more defined.”

Does her hopes of reaching a deal improve with the move into mediation?

“We are very hopeful that a mediator will help support the parties coming to a deal. We will be working around the clock to make sure that happens but it does take two.”

Talks hit a wall over contentious class size and composition proposals.

Mooring says the union remains concerned about “concessions on the table that BCPSEA has put on.”

“None of our concerns have been alleviated as yet but we are certainly hopeful that we will come to ground during the mediation process and end up with a deal before the start of school.”

Mooring acknowledges while she is optimistic the two sides can reach a deal this summer there are no guarantees.

“It is possible we won’t end up with a deal before the start of the school year. We are certainly going to try as hard as we can to get a deal. Certainly teachers want that. We are also interested in a good deal not just any deal.”

Mooring takes over from Glen Hansman as BCTF President on July 1st.

The mediator coming in to help negotiations is Dave Schaub.

The interview in full with incoming BCTF President Teri Mooring is in full below.