One down, five to go.

The Upper Canada District School Board has reached a tentative agreement with one of its six collective bargaining groups, a deal that comes up for a vote by both sides next week.

The public board and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) issued a joint statement earlier this week announcing the tentative agreement between the board and the union’s Professional Student Services Personnel (PSSP) group.

PSSP represents psychological associates, behaviourists, speech/language pathologists, special services counsellors, psychometrists, strict discipline school counsellors and child and youth workers throughout the sprawling board.

The board’s trustees plan to hold a ratification vote at their regular meeting Wednesday, while the PSSP is to vote on the agreement the following day.

Both sides have agreed not to discuss the specifics of the deal until those votes are held, board spokesman Mark Calder said Friday.

The PSSP’s chief negotiator, Donna McShane, could not be reached for comment.

Board chairman Greg Pietersma was not sure Friday how many people are involved in this bargaining group or what salary range they represent.

“It’s our smallest bargaining group,” he said.

Discussions with PSSP were harmonious and there was no threat of labour action, said Pietersma, praising the board’s negotiators for “coming up with a deal that was good for both parties.”

Since school board collective agreements are funded by the provincial government, the bargaining process begins on a provincewide scale, leading to a “provincial table agreement,” noted Pietersma, referring to the PDT, or provincial discussion table agreement process.

Once that is in place, further details are worked out locally.

“Ultimately, the contracts are between the school board and the local,” said Pietersma.

The chairman was already looking ahead to the board’s remaining discussions. There are six contracts between the public board and its employees and all have been up for discussion, he said.

The others include elementary and secondary school teachers, occasional teachers at both those levels and workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

The provincial government has proposed a provincial table agreement with all of these unions provincewide, and CUPE, which represents secretarial, clerical, custodial and maintenance staff, has agreed to it.

Negotiations are now going on locally with CUPE local 5678, said Pietersma.

The board is awaiting provincial deals for the contracts with the OSSTF and the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO).

“We’re progressing … and we hope that we have deals in place,” said Pietersma.

The six collective agreements ran out Aug. 31.

The provincial PDT agreement proposes a three per cent increase for each of the next four years.

If the groups do not agree to the agreements before the end of the month, the provincial offer falls to two per cent over the next two years.