Over half a million students in B.C. are back in school today for the first full day of the 2014-15 school year.

Schools reopened in Merritt yesterday from 10 a.m. to 12 noon for most students for orientation, and today marks the first full day of classes.

The teachers’ strike, which had been going on since June, ended Thursday night when members of the BC Teachers’ Federation voted 86 per cent in favour of ratifying a tentative agreement with the BC Public School Employers’ Association.

The agreement includes a wage increase of 7.25 per cent over six years, down considerably from the teachers’ union’s first request of 13.5 per cent. Teachers will see their first pay raise — 3.25 per cent — come into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.

The agreement also includes $400 million to hire 850 new teachers each year for five years, as well as $108 million set aside in a grievance fund to settle outstanding union grievances accumulated when the province removed class size and composition terms from the teachers’ contract in 2002.

Even with litigation ongoing, the relationship between the province and teachers in the BCTF is more functional than before, Premier Christy Clark said in an announcement last Tuesday.

The deal is retroactive for one year, so essentially signals five years of labour peace, Clark said.

The money to pay for the new contract comes from the Ministry of Environment and the BC Liberals won’t raise taxes, Clark said.

At its regular meeting on Sept. 17 — the day before the deal was finalized — trustees for School District 58 said they were pleased both sides had reached a tentative agreement.

Trustee Dave Rainer said the six-year plan affords enough labour peace to outline educational goals at short-term, mid-term and long-term intervals, while trustees Gordon Swan and Leah Ward said employee relations are top priorities for them going forward.

School District 58 superintendent Steve McNiven said enrolment in the district is down from projections partly due to the strike, as parents shuffled their kids to the band schools and to the local distance education school while other schools remained closed.

The preliminary enrolment report indicates SD58 has 1,907 students this year (not including SCIDES), which is below the projection of 1,930.

McNiven told the board he expects to see some movement in those numbers once families settle into their school year routines.

“No doubt there’s going to be some bumps in the road for us returning to normality,” McNiven said. “But I’m pleased we’re getting close.”

In all, 31,741 ballots were cast by B.C. teachers, representing 27,275 teachers who voted yes to ratifying the agreement. That means 4,466 teachers voted no on the agreement, while another approximately 9,000 in the union’s 41,000-strong membership did not vote.

The bus schedules for Merritt and Princeton are available online at sd58.bc.ca.