Parents across the North Shore were still wondering if they should resign themselves to an early start to summer vacation this week after negotiations resumed Tuesday between teachers and the government.
The latest round of bargaining came after the two sides failed to reach an 11th hour deal over the weekend.
That didn't leave a lot of parents feeling optimistic.
"If the textbooks have been handed in and the school supplies are home, I suspect we're done for the year," said Jane Lagden Holborne, chairwoman of the North Vancouver district parent advisory council, prior to the latest round of talks resuming.
"I'm sure (parents feel) a great deal of frustration at being caught in the middle."
Schools were closed Monday and Tuesday as parents of younger children scrambled to arrange child care and get artwork home two weeks early.
Lisa Dooling, a parent with three teens at Seycove secondary, said her Grade 9 daughter doesn't know if she should be preparing for classroom exams or not. Besides marks for students in Grade 12, most families also don't know when or if they will get report cards or marks for the year.
Dooling said it's an unfortunate end to school for kids who are graduating this year.
"It wasn't like the usual end of school," she said. "I actually felt for the kids who are leaving. That will be the end of their school. And it ended on a sour note."
Leah James, a mom of three boys aged 8, 13 and 16, said she was happy the school managed to quickly organize a ceremony for her middle son's Grade 7 class before school ended.
"I know a lot of parents who are in a mad rush now to find activities faster than we intended," she added. "A lot of them are already full. We thought we had two weeks."
Day camps organized by West Vancouver's recreation department for the last two weeks of June filled up quickly, said Donna Powers, spokeswoman for the municipality.
"They are all full or very near capacity," with 350 children registered, she said.
Teachers held rallies on Monday and were back on the picket lines Tuesday morning after bargaining sessions over the weekend ended in public acrimony expressed in duelling press conferences Monday.
On Monday morning, Jim Iker, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation, said government negotiators had "squandered an opportunity" to get a deal. He said teachers had reduced their wage demands to 8 per cent over five years. Teachers also asked for a bigger signing bonus of $5,000.
Iker angrily accused the government of going backwards on its salary offer. He said teachers had proposed two new education funds to address class size and composition issues.
Hours later, the government's chief negotiator Peter Cameron accused Iker of painting a "false" picture of the bargaining sessions.
Cameron said in addition to the salary proposals "there's a truckload of benefit provisions" being requested by the teachers union. "They still want more than double" what other public sector unions have settled for, he said.
Government negotiators added the union's proposal to create special funds for class sizes had no cost attached to it and was akin to writing a blank cheque.
James said she's still hoping for a deal by the end of the school year, so the dispute won't drag into September.
"I just don't want to keep it happening every year," she said.
