Recess and lunch hour supervision at Richmond schools was limited starting Wednesday as a result of job action taken by teachers, following a decision by their union, the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, to serve strike and job action notice.
Teachers will also not be supervising children before and after school, leaving those duties to administrators.
On Tuesday Richmond Schhol District Superintendent Monica Pamer sent a letter home to parents indicating Richmond school administrators would be watching over students during those times. She assured parents that students would be safe.
According to Al Klassen, president of the Richmond Teachers’ Association, there is no specific discussion of strike or rotating-strike action in the immediate future.
In addition to limiting supervision to class hours, teachers will also be limiting communication and dialogue between themselves and administrators to informal face-to-face interactions. Teachers will also limit the work they do beyond class time to one hour before and one hour after class hours.
Teachers will, however, continue to write report cards and participate in volunteer activities.
“Work will become more challenging as dialogue between administrators and teachers is limited, and that’s part of job action. The actions will affect school governance and that’s the unfortunate part, but by and large the students’ education won’t be affected,” said Klassen, noting committees will likely be one of the more affected aspects of a school’s routine.
The low-level job action comes after teachers voted 89 per cent in favour of strike action on March 6.
“Job action, even low-level action, is always a last resort because teachers care deeply about our schools and our students,” wrote BCTF president Jim Iker in an online statement last week.
Teachers are asking for wage increases and improvements to learning conditions like class size, class composition and specialist staffing levels.
The provincial government is appealing a B.C. Supreme Court ruling that declared the Ministry of Education unconstitutionally removed the rights of teachers to negotiate class size and composition 12 years ago. The decision has been stayed by the Court of Appeal while it is reviewed and the two sides negotiate.
@WestcoastWood
