B.C. teachers' strike: summer school cancellations adding up
Vancouver is the latest school district to announce there will be no summer school
The Vancouver School Board has become the latest district to cancel summer school, as hope for a settlement of the B.C. teachers' dispute continues to fade.
Negotiations between the BCTF and the government reached another standstill on Wednesday when a second mediator refused to take on the job of helping to settle the dispute.
Last week, B.C.'s Labour Relations Board ruled schools must have summer classes during the strike for students in grades 10 to 12 who failed a course that cannot be retaken next year
Vancouver School Board chair Patti Bacchus said she didn't believe there were any students in the city who wouldn't have the option of making up classes in the fall because Vancouver offers a wide range of options.
The board also said since the teachers are still picketing, unionized staff would not cross those lines, leaving the district unable to provide adequate instruction or student supervision.
The list of school districts that have cancelled summer school now includes:
- Abbotsford
- Burnaby
- Campbell River
- Chilliwack
- Coquitlam
- Delta
- Kamloops
- Langley
- Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows
- North Vancouver
- Prince George
- Surrey (partial closure)
- Vancouver
- Greater Victoria
- Williams Lake
West Vancouver's school district also indicated last week that summer school would be cancelled if the teachers' strike hadn't ended. Surrey's school district says it plans to announce its summer school status Thursday.
More than 41,000 teachers across the province went on a full strike on June 17, indefinitely cancelling classes for more than half a million public school students.
The Labour Relations Board has also ruled schools that operate on a year-round schedule cannot be picketed by the teachers and will go ahead as planned.
With files from The Canadian Press and the CBC's Dan Burritt