Full-day teacher strikes to hit Regina, other school divisions on Monday: STF
Escalating job action to continue next week as education minister stays mum on strikes
Teachers in several school divisions won't come to work on Monday, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation said Friday, including in the public and Catholic school divisions in Regina.
The STF says it is escalating the past five days of job action and has issued formal notice of the one-day rotating strike on March 4. The schools and school divisions affected on Monday are:
- Holy Family Catholic School Division.
- Prairie South School Division.
- Regina Public Schools.
- Regina Catholic Schools.
- South East Cornerstone School Division.
- Saskatchewan Distance Learning Corporation — south central campus (Moose Jaw) and southeast campus (Estevan).
- École Mgr de Laval Pavillon Secondaire des Quatre Vents, École du Parc and École Mgr de Laval Pavillon Primaire (Regina).
- École Ducharme (Moose Jaw)
- École Mathieu de Gravelbourg and École Beau Soleil (Gravelbourg).
- École de Bellegarde (Bellegarde).
Stuck in a months-long bargaining deadlock with the province, teachers have been taking intermittent job actions since mid-January.
Monday's strike coincides with the first day of the Legislature's spring sitting, and teachers' federation president Samantha Becotte said teachers will be picketing outside the building on Monday.
"We do not want to be taking these actions. As much as students enjoy the opportunities that teachers provide through their voluntary services, the teachers who provide those services love providing them as well," Becotte told reporters from Saskatoon on Friday.
"Unfortunately, because of now a decade of underfunding that we have experienced, teachers are being put into an impossible situation where they cannot simply meet the needs of students in their classroom."
Teachers have been rotating withdrawing lunch supervision and extracurricular duties that have forced many school divisions to send students home at lunch or close early.
And starting on Tuesday, teachers provincewide will not participate or run extracurricular activities for at least two days and possibly longer if the government doesn't come to the table with a new mandate.
Curling Canada told CBC News that the Monday job action means up to 526 students and school staff won't be able to attend the Brier in Regina, slightly more than half of the 1,010 tickets it said it issued for schools that day.
An average of 1,435 school program tickets have been issued each day for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, the organization said in a Friday email to CBC, adding it's unclear how many may be impacted until further job action is announced.
Minister mum on bargaining deadlock
Teachers say the province refuses to discuss provisions to address class size and supports for students with complex needs, while the education ministry has said the main issue is salary increases.
CBC News has made multiple requests for an interview with Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill since Monday, but he has not been made available.
In identical emailed statements sent to CBC on Monday, Thursday and Friday, the education ministry called the strikes "unfortunate" and blamed teachers for disrupting student learning and inconveniencing families.
It said $53.1 million in funding for class complexity — which includes previously announced amounts of $3.6 million for a pilot program in eight school divisions and $40 million for school divisions dealing with growing enrolment — will be made into annual commitments, a deal supported by the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.
However, teachers say they want to see commitments in their contract, so the money can't be pulled away.
When CBC News asked followup questions specifically about the new job action announced by the STF on Friday, a ministry spokesperson said there was "no new information to share right now regarding this matter."
WATCH | Former Sask. teacher says lack of supports put student safety at risk:
Krista Yonz said her family is lucky to live across the street from her step-son's elementary school in Prince Albert so the 12-year-old could come home for lunch on days like Friday, when teachers withdrew lunch supervision.
But Yonz said she doesn't know how she will tell the Grade 6 student he may not be able to play piano in an all-city jazz band his teachers organized for at least a couple days next week and possibly longer.
"He'll be disappointed if the program is going to be quitting for an undetermined amount of time because he was thrilled to get into this," she said. "This was something he was looking forward to week after week."
Yonz said she supports teachers taking job action and hopes the disruptions to her son's learning and friendships don't last much longer.
"It's wasted educational chances and not even just for my son, but for other kids who maybe have less resources at home, it's worse for them," she said.