The Chinook School Division is heading back to the bargaining table, which may put the organization in a financial squeeze.

One issue brought up in the division's report was the renegotiation of a contract with a union organization within the division.

The Chinook School Division is unique in the fact that they deal with two teachers agreements instead of just one.

One of the contracts is the provincial bargaining agreement and the other is the locally negotiated contract. 

The contract up for re-negotiation is with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). Their contract with that organization expired back on August 31, 2018.

Ken Garinger, superintendent of human resources with the Chinook School Division, said that they do have a good relationship with their unions, so negotiations weren't likely to get too messy.

"When you have a relationship, you can get to a place where you understand one another, you may not necessarily agree as I said, but you can get to a place of understanding, and sometimes that understanding is... anytime your in a negotiation there's give and take, and sometimes you can get to a place where we can find that common ground."

Due to budget restraints, Garinger said that there wouldn't be much wiggle room on the contract.

The division is split into 64.5 per cent non-union members and 35.5 per cent union members. Twenty-one point nine per cent of employees in the division are members of the CUPE union, and the other 13.9 per cent reside in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

"Financially we're challenged," the superintendent said following his first presentation in the division's board meeting. "We'll find a way of coming to an agreement, there's no question, that's our goal."

Another set of statistics that were outlined in the human resources report came from a survey given to teachers within the school division.

The survey focused on how happy teachers are in their current employment.

They received data from 288 of their 439 member teaching staff, in which 230 wanted to remain in their positions, seven wished to be full-time employee's, 28 showed an interest in administrative duties, 15 wanted to transfer, four wanted to retire, two wished to resign, 17 wanted meetings to discuss their current employment, and they also received 79 comments from those involved.

"A large majority of the people who respond who are wanting to remain at the current position they are currently in, that says a lot," Garinger said. "The fact that this is a great place to work, and a great place to go to school for kids as a result."

The data collected in the survey also looks to support the division to fulfill the needs of the teachers, by taking into consideration their requests.

Age was also something covered in the report and showed that eight teachers will have retired from their roles as of June of this year. On the other end of that spectrum, 14 interns from the University of Regina were taken on in the division.