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Teachers union upset by recess cancellation

Recess was cancelled in most schools across the Prince George school district on Wednesday. It was one of the responses by School District 57 to the escalating job action by B.C.'s teachers.

Recess was cancelled in most schools across the Prince George school district on Wednesday. It was one of the responses by School District 57 to the escalating job action by B.C.'s teachers. They withdrew some non-mandatory services like supervisory duties to draw attention to their ongoing contract impasse with the agents of the provincial government.

Quesnel school district also cancelled recess, as did Bulkley Valley and a handful of others around the province. This meant the starting time for classes was moved ahead and the ending time for classes was moved back for a total of 15 minutes, to compensate for the recess gap.

This was not a move appreciated by the BC Teachers' Federation. BCTF president Jim Iker, a teacher formerly from the nearby Nechako Lakes school district prior to his union position, issued a critical statement on Wednesday afternoon.

"The vast majority of school districts across B.C. have not cancelled recess and those that have should reconsider," Iker said. "Principals, vice-principals, and excluded staff are more than capable of supervising the playground for 15 minutes each day."

SD57 superintendent Brian Pepper disagreed. Although the specific reasons were not provided by Pepper, he did write that "while exempt and management staff will conduct before school and after school supervision, they are not able to cover recess supervision during the day."

Bus times remained unchanged and in a small number of schools in more rural settings of the district, SD57 issued an "essential services order" insisting teachers do continue to carry out all supervisory duties in those rare settings.

"The school districts that have cancelled recess have done so because it is inconvenient to principals and management staff," Iker said. "They have not even tried to find coverage as per the order from the Labour Relations Board."

Iker said the supervision issue was addressed in a previous Labour Relations Board statement that said, in part, the withdrawal of teachers from those duties was allowable and "subject to the employer utilizing management and excluded staff to the best extent possible to replace teachers for these activities."

Iker said, "Any recess cancellations falls squarely on the shoulders of school districts unwilling to move their staff around. Furthermore, teachers will continue to do previously scheduled voluntary activities. As such, there is no reason for any districts to cancel events, trips, or extra-curricular activities."

None of those involved suggested how long these measures would go on for. This level of job action is known as Stage 1, but further withdrawals of service including a full strike were still options for the future, should negotiations continue to be problematic.