School superintendent Brian Pepper shed further light this week on why elementary school students in School District 57 have been going without recess in the wake of teachers' job action while those in many other school districts still get the break.
Speaking to trustees at a school board meeting on Tuesday, Pepper said in part it comes down to the differences between school districts in tasks historically carried out by unionized and non-unionized staff
"There are different realities in different school districts," he said.
Specifically, Pepper said, there are union staff that School District 57 have opted to deploy in the classroom whereas in other school districts, part of their time is used to provide supervision to give teaching staff a break and changing that arrangement is out of the question.
"We can't ask other union members to do work that has been struck work," Pepper said.
Just five other school districts have canceled recess with the job action.
Pepper also went over why administrators are unable to fill in, saying there are actually fewer principals, vice principals and other "exempt" or non-union staff in the school district than when it made a similar move during a previous job action.
"We don't have the staff to adequately cover and ensure safety of students around the district at recess time," Pepper said.
Trustee Lois Boone struck a similar note, saying there 110 exempt staff and 39 schools in the district, many of them beyond driving distance of Prince George while administrators are already busy with their main tasks.
"We've had e-mails and letters and that from people saying 'Why don't you do what other districts have done?'" Boone said. "Well, other districts aren't as large as this district and don't have the rural schools that we have, and we're down to bare minimal amounts of people in our administrator positions and they're work above and beyond the call of duty right now."
Principals, vice principals and other administrators continue to supervise school grounds before and after school and school days are ending 15 minutes sooner as a result of the loss of recess.
Pepper said teachers are also giving students breaks on an as needed basis.
"That has worked reasonably well," Pepper said.
Earlier in the meeting, Prince George and District Teachers Association president Matt Pearce said teachers are into day 17 of their job action as negotiations over a new contract have been stalled for months and are in it for the long haul.
"We know we're going to be in this position certainly for weeks, possibly for months and even possibly for years, but we're going to be patient," Pearce said.
He also urged trustees and administrators to refrain from cancelling early dismissal days, as other school districts have done, saying teachers will use those days to meet with parents.
Teachers' "phase one" job action sees them refusing to perform administrative tasks such as filling out forms, collecting data, meeting with principals or other administrators, supervising on playgrounds, or writing report cards.
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