Students in the Creston Valley have an extra long weekend coming, after the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation announced that its members will be fully withdrawing their services on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.
The action comes after the B.C. government tabled legislation to impose a “cooling-off” period to the end of August and fine the union and its members for strikes during that time.
“This is an escalation of strike action that has been taken by teachers throughout the Province of British Columbia over the past six months, and which has already had significant impact on our school district,” said School District No. 8 (Kootenay Lake) Supt. Jeff Jones in a letter to parents this afternoon.
The letter advised parents to keep their children home on March 5, 6 and 7 or to arrange alternate care.
“Our schools will not be staffed adequately during this time to ensure the safe supervision of our students,” Jones said. “None of our regular bus routes will operate during this time.”
Jones added that the SD8 website will be kept updated with current throughout the strike, and encouraged parents to pay attention to local media for updates.
“It is the sincere hope of the board of education that this dispute will be concluded quickly and that normal school operations will resume as quickly as possible,” he said. “In the meantime, we will do our utmost to keep you informed in a timely manner over the next week.”
Out of the 32,209 BCTF members who voted Tuesday and Wednesday, nearly 28,000 voted yes to the strike option. Nearly 9,000 teachers did not vote, and more than 10 per cent or 4,263 voted against strike action.
