With no end in site in the dispute between B.C. teachers and the province, Squamish parents are preparing mentally and logistically for summer to limp on for at least a few more days — if not a few more weeks.
Hours before veteran mediator Vince Ready walked out of day three of last ditch negotiations between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the bargaining agent for the provincial government, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) taking place at a hotel in Richmond, Squamish parents and kids attending the final August Farmers’ Market on Saturday seemed already resigned to the fact there would be no school come Tuesday.
Most said they would continue on as they had at the end of the last school year when the teachers were out on strike for the last weeks of school.
“Just keep up with the homework she usually does during the day, and then extend it a little bit longer,” said stay-at-home parent Francoise Gosling whose daughter is going into Grade 4.
Gosling said she while she wasn’t thrilled kids likely won’t be back in their classrooms, she said her family has formulated their own job-action routine because of the way the school year ended.
“We just homeschool,” she said.
June 17, the BCTF escalated their ongoing job action to a full-scale strike after failing to reach an agreement with the province, putting schools behind picket lines for the last two weeks of the school year.
Diana Sillery, whose children are going into Grades 5 and 4, said she sees the issue as being about quality of education and is willing to have her children away from school for a little longer, if it will improve things in the classroom.
“Education is one of the cornerstones of the sustainability of our country,” she said, adding she thinks teachers are fighting to make the classroom a better learning environment with smaller class sizes and control over composition.
But Sillery admitted the length of the dispute is starting to take its toll.
“I think parents in June…we were willing to go OK we can make this work because it is two weeks before summer vacation, some people pull their kids out, and everyone is in a little more relaxed mode, but September, October, November aren’t. This is it. So, if people’s lives are impacted, financially or whatever, because their kids can’t go to school, then the ideology and what we believe kind of gets a little mixed up because it has a negative impact on us,” she said.
She said because she and her husband are self-employed they can be a bit flexible with childcare and work schedules, but nonetheless they will feel the delay of back to school in their pocketbooks.
As a financial advisor, not only will Sillery lose money not being able to meet as many clients because she will be caring for her kids, clients who are parents have been reluctant to book appointments in the next few weeks in case they have to be at home or finding childcare.
Sillery’s solution to the government-teacher impasse is one suitable to fighting children.
“Go into a locked room until you figure it out,” she said.
The dispute between the teachers’ union and the province has dragged on since June of 2013 when the teachers’ contract expired. The two sides have disagreed over wages, benefits and working conditions. The major sticking point now is reportedly class size and composition.
For their part Squamish students the Chief talked to Saturday seemed both excited and anxious about the prospect of a later start to their school year, especially if they were entering a watershed year.
“There is a mix of yay it is still summer and at the same time it is an important thing — it is our senior year. I know a lot of the Grade 12s obviously want to go back to school and don’t want to miss it,” said Dylan Deasley, a senior at Howe Sound Secondary.
“Some kids are worried too it will mess up our next summer, our breaks at Christmas and all that and, it is just going to mess everything up.”
Younger voiced concerns about missing the social aspect of school.
“I was kind of looking forward to going back and seeing my friends, for me it is a little disappointing,” said Tyler Ng, Grade 7 student at Brackendale Elementary
There was no timeline for further negotiations announced between the teachers’ union and the province as of this posting.
Stay tuned to this site for further updates.
