January 11, 2024
Dear Prince Albert Catholic School Division (PARCSSD) Families and Staff,
As you may be aware, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) overwhelmingly voted in favour of sanctions pending negotiations. The Prince Albert Catholic School Division is writing to inform parents that the STF has notified school divisions of PROVINCE-WIDE STRIKE BY ALL STF MEMBERS (including all teachers, principals, vice-principals, coordinators, consultants and student support services teachers). The Province-wide Strike will occur on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. There will be no school, extracurricular or co curricular activities that day. The Teachers have withdrawn all professional and voluntary services for the entire day. All school-led events and other school division events are cancelled (school sports, school clubs, performing arts, meetings). Families are asked to make arrangements for their children for Tuesday, January 16, 2024, only. School will resume on Wednesday.
The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee have just completed working at the Conciliation table. It is important to note that the Prince Albert Catholic School Board of Education does not participate in the collective bargaining process. The Government-Trustee Bargaining Committee and the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation bargain at the provincial level.
As a division, we value our teachers and non-teaching staff’s outstanding work with our students and families. However, we will endeavour to keep parents and families apprised of events and will do so using Edsby, social media, media and posting information on our website. Our school division will strive to focus on students’ safety and aim to minimize disruption to their learning throughout these unpredictable times. We respect the collective bargaining rights of our Teacher STF members and the work that will be completed with the Provincial Government Trustee Bargaining Committee.
At this time, we have only been notified of the one-day province-wide strike on Tuesday, January 16, 2024. However, future job action may result in various forms of withdrawal of services and could include withdrawal of extracurricular activity, supervision, withdrawal of noon-hour and playground supervision, half-day/full-day strikes, rotating strikes or a general strike. We cannot predict what type of job action could occur. Should any of these occur, the Board of Education and Senior Administration will notify staff, students, and families as soon as possible. We are confident that student’s interests will be of the uppermost importance in our teachers’ minds, and we have asked them to provide us with notice of any job action and support maintaining student safety.
We are committed to maintaining the integrity of our classrooms and schools. We believe using the classroom as a forum to discuss the strike or related issues is inappropriate. We want to keep bargaining issues out of the classroom and ask our families and staff to do the same. Should any changes occur regarding job action, we will communicate as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding and for your support. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your child’s school or the Catholic Education Centre at 306-953-7500.
Sincerely.
L. Trumier
Director of Education
