Parents of School District 57 students won’t likely be receiving end-of-semester report cards, unless the student is in Grade 12.

Last week, the education ministry deemed school superintendents no longer responsible to report student progress while teachers are refusing to fill out report cards in protest over the province-wide labour dispute, now into its fifth month.

Report cards issued in December contained little information other than a list of courses, student attendance and teacher contact information.

Grades and comments from teaching school administrators were also included.

District 57 superintendent Brian Pepper said last month that schools may have issued blank report cards before deputy education minister James Gorman made the ruling.

“This came out about the time many of the secondary schools were sending reports out, so many of them are out,” he said.

Pepper said report cards for

potential grads will contain marks.

“For those students that have an administrator who teaches, it will be business as usual,” said Pepper.

Schools are advising parents who want updates to contact teachers.

The Prince George District Parent Advisory Council said parents should let the schools know of their concerns.

Teacher support split

An Ipsos Reid poll released on Friday shows public support is just about evenly split between the province’s 40,000 teachers and their provincial employer, the BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA). The poll revealed 31 per cent of the 1,000 B.C. residents polled think teachers in the BC Teachers Federation have been fair and reasonable in their contract negotiations. Twenty-nine per cent thought the provincial government has been fair and reasonable at the bargaining table.

The remaining 40 per cent do not see one side as more fair and reasonable than the other. Twenty-three per cent said neither side has been more fair and reasonable, two per cent decided both sides have been equally fair, and 15 per cent were undecided.

In the North/Interior region, 34 per cent supported the teachers, while 30 per cent thought the provincial representatives were bargaining in better faith. Teachers had their greatest support among Vancouver Island residents, with 34 per cent of those polled in favour of the BCTF and 23 per cent favouring the province.

The BCTF also had positive poll results with younger residents (37 per cent sided with the teachers as opposed to 28 per cent who favoured the government) and women (33 per cent for teachers, 22 per cent for the provincial government). BCPSEA had 37 per cent of public favour among men, while 29 per cent of men were on side with the teachers.

The household survey, taken from Feb. 1 to Feb. 5, is considered accurate within a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.