Nearly 3,000 Burnaby private school students strapped on backpacks for the first day of school Tuesday while their public school counterparts headed off to daycares and other non-school activities.
Public school teachers were back on the picket lines this week after talks between the B.C. Teachers’ Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association broke down over the weekend.
Burnaby school district officials held off until Monday morning before announcing schools wouldn’t be open for the scheduled first day of school.
“We share in your disappointment that our school start-up is not able to proceed at this time,” stated a letter posted on the district’s website. “At this time, we encourage parents to make alternate arrangements this coming week for their children and we are sorry for the hardship this may cause.”
A glimmer of hope for an 11th-hour resolution brokered by veteran mediator Vince Ready was extinguished Saturday when Ready walked away from the bargaining table saying the two sides were still too far apart.
“It’s completely disappointing because this is a day that every teacher looks forward to,” said Burnaby Teachers’ Association president Rae Figursky, who told the NOWshe had held out hope for a resolution as late as Sunday night.
“I’m so disappointed government won’t move, but without class size and composition, we’re not signing anything,” she said.
The local union will continue picketing this week and will hold a rally Friday, said Figursky, adding she has no idea how much longer the strike will last.
“I really don’t know,” she said. “I didn’t expect it to last to the end of June. I didn’t expect it to last over the summer.”
No new meetings between the provincial bargaining teams were scheduled as of Tuesday.
As of Sunday, parents began registering to receive the $40 a day promised by the province for each child 12 years old and under for daycare and other activities while the strike lasts.
At independent schools, meanwhile, it was business as usual on the first day of school, with students lining up for class, fresh school supplies in hand.
Public school educators weren’t completely forgotten by their private-school counterparts, though, according to Catholic schools superintendent Doug Lauson, whose archdiocese includes more than 1,900 Burnaby Catholic school students.
Staff in his office offered up a prayer for public schools Tuesday morning, he said.
“We just prayed that they’d be able to resolve their differences and be back in the classroom as soon as possible.”
Early reports from the Federation of Independent School Associations (FISA), an umbrella organization for about 300 B.C. independent schools, show a 4.5 per cent jump in private school enrolment this year.
Enrolment increased by four per cent after the last teachers’ labour dispute in 2012.
A typical annual increase is between one and two per cent, according to FISA executive director Peter Froese.
“At this point it’s tracking even higher than after 2012,” Froese told the NOW.
