Dear Parents and Guardians,
Today the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) announced their intention to perform a full scale withdrawal of services on Monday March 5th through Wednesday March 7th. This strike action is legal given a recent Labour Relations Board ruling allowing teachers to walk out for up to three days after giving two school days’ notice.
At the same time the government has recently introduced Bill 22 in the legislature which among many things would create a six month “cooling off” period whereby there could be no strike activity or job action. Once the bill has been given royal assent it then becomes the law and teachers would need to return to the classroom. At this time we are unsure of the timing of when the bill will be enacted.
While school facilities will remain open under the supervision of school district staff, we will be unable to provide students with instruction or appropriate supervision during this period of job action. The Castlegar Junior Alternate School and Online Learning Centre in Castlegar will both be closed. School district buses will NOT be running during the teacher strike.
We are therefore requesting that parents keep their children at home on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday (March 5-7).
The uncertainty of the timing around the implementation of the legislation and the teachers’ response means we will need to revisit the situation daily.
Please check our website www.sd20.bc.ca daily as we will use that medium as our main communication vehicle. Alternatively, you can call 250-368-2222 and listen to a recorded message with the latest update.
Again, sorry for the disruption.
Sincerely,
Greg Luterbach
Superintendent of Schools