A pay raise is not the key stumbling block to negotiations between the territorial government and the teachers' union that reached an impasse this week, says Katherine Mackwood, president of the Yukon Teachers' Association.

"Our members' major concern is our class composition issues,” she told the Star this morning.

"They need and want something done in this area. We can no longer continue to meet the needs of our students.”

In a typical class size of 23 to 24 students, upwards of 20 per cent have what Mackwood categorized as either a disability, a learning disability or a severe behavioural problem – any of which warrant more resources than teachers currently have.

But Public Service Commissioner Patricia Daws characterized the current stalemate with the teachers' union as one over money.

"Since it was clear at the bargaining table that the parties were not in the same settlement zone on monetary matters, the government does not believe that appointing a mediator would be of any

assistance,” Daws communicated in a press release issued Thursday.

In the same release, Daws said the government wants to renew its collective agreement with teachers for another three years (the teachers' association's previous agreement expired June 30).

In a radio interview this morning, Daws said the teachers are seeking a nine per cent pay increase over two years.

Mackwood said the teachers want a 4.5 per cent salary boost each year, but have yet to stipulate a duration for any new agreement.

A spokesman from the Public Service Commission informed the Star this morning that Daws would be unavailable for comment until 3 p.m. today, well beyond this afternoon's publishing deadline.

Already, Yukon teachers are among the highest-paid in Canada.

The starting wage for a teacher in the territory fresh out of teachers' college with no classroom experience is $57,398 annually, nearly $20,000 more than the same person would earn in British Columbia.

However, Mackwood thinks the territory's educators are worth every penny and deserve a raise, noting teachers in the N.W.T. and Nunavut earn more.

"I will make no apologies for the wages that our highly-talented and educated professionals earn,” she said.

And Mackwood insisted wages are not the paramount stumbling block that have the government and union at loggerheads, and resents that the union must also bargain for a better education system.

"Personally, I don't know why, here in the Yukon, we have to negotiate working conditions and learning conditions,” she said. "But that is the case, and we are charged with that, so that's what we shall do.”

Asked about specific difficulties faced within a typical classroom, Mackwood declined to elaborate beyond the fact teachers are tasked to do too much.

"If you only have a certain amount of support in that class, i.e., one teacher, the individuals who need the support aren't getting it and neither are the other students ... it's paramount for our students to receive the education that they deserve.”

What Mackwood did concede is that the status quo is contributing to the dismal graduation rates Auditor General Sheila Fraser outlined in a damning report on the territory's education system.

Fraser's report, released last January, found only 40 per cent of first nations students graduate from Grade 12 and just 58 per cent of all Yukon students reach that milestone.

What made the report even more scandalous is that the Department of Education was inflating its graduation rates, factoring only students entering Grade 12, rather than the number of students going into Kindergarten who would eventually graduate in any given year. Fraser called this "misleading.”

As the government and the union appear unwilling to budge, the contract negotiations can go to arbitration or conciliation.

On the former option, an independent party will consider both sides and issue a binding solution.

On the latter conciliation process, a board is struck and possible remedies are issued; however, job action can result if the union is unhappy with the results.

The decision on whether to go to binding arbitration or non-binding conciliation rests with the teachers' union membership.