School could be out for the summer by the end of Friday unless teachers and the government reach a deal over the next few days.
Schools in both North Vancouver and West Vancouver will be closed next week after the teachers union announced a full-scale strike starting Tuesday, plus a “study session” on Monday — meaning no teachers will be at school.
Earlier this week, teachers voted 86 per cent in favour of escalating their strike.
Notice of the full-scale strike came the day after teachers on the North Shore walked picket lines Wednesday for the third day of rotating strikes.
School administrators were scrambling Thursday to get word out to parents and prepare to potentially wrap up the school year two weeks early.
“There’s no school Monday,” said Dave Eberwein, assistant superintendent of the West Vancouver School District.
Eberwein said schools are sending out messages to parents about what to expect in terms of picking up students’ artwork and previously planned end-of-year activities.
While high school graduation ceremonies have already happened, some elementary school events may not go ahead. “We’re looking to see if they can be rescheduled or done in a different way,” said Eberwein.
John Lewis, North Vancouver schools superintendent, sent a letter home to parents Thursday asking students to return school material, pick up their personal items and clean out their lockers by Friday. Students writing exams can keep their textbooks until the exams, he wrote.
Senior high school exams are expected to go ahead as planned after the Labour Relations Board ruled exams for grades 10 to 12 students an essential service.
“The exams will be written,” said Education Minister Peter Fassbender Thursday morning. “To me that’s the message to parents and students.”
Fassbender said the ministry still has to figure out how the exams will be marked. Usually the province pays teachers on a contract basis to mark exams in the early part of the summer.
The fate of summer school in both North Vancouver and West Vancouver is also still up in the air.
Both elementary and secondary programs are scheduled to start July 8 in West Vancouver and have more than 700 students registered. If the labour dispute isn’t resolved by the end of June, it will be up to the teachers union to decide if summer school is included in a continuing strike.
Rob Millard, president of the West Vancouver Teachers Association, said escalation in the strike shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. “We all knew this could happen,” he said. “We’ve given everyone a deadline.”
Teachers on the picket lines are no longer receiving strike pay, after the money for that ran out.
Both sides indicated Thursday that a deal is still possible at the bargaining table, with Jim Iker, president of the B.C. Teachers Federation, indicating the union is prepared to bargain all weekend.
Iker said Thursday teachers have come up with a revised wage proposal, but didn’t give details of what that is.
So far, the B.C. Public School Employers Association has offered a 7.3 per cent wage increase over six years while teachers have asked for a 9.75 per cent increase plus additional amounts for cost of living over four years.
Eberwein said the school district has been getting some feedback from exasperated parents. “This situation is very unfortunate and we understand how frustrating it is,” he said.
Lewis echoed those comments in his letter to parents. “We are disheartened by this turn of events, and know that it has intensified feelings of frustration related to a very complex dispute,” he said.
