For the remainder of the 2011-2012 school year there will be significant changes to the extra curricular activities offered at elementary schools in Saanich. Teachers in Saanich have decided to withdraw their voluntary participation in extra curricular activities at this time. Athletic activities such as Cross Country or Track and Field as well as other extra curricular activities like drama or choir will not take place.

It has been suggested that elementary administrators could have parent volunteers run extra curricular programs with administrators acting as sponsors for practices and events. Although we appreciate parents’ willingness to step forward, there are several factors that have led us to the decision to not support using these volunteers:

1. It would be difficult to get consistent qualifications of volunteers (skill set, experience with diverse groups of children, commitment to our need for confidentiality)

2. Difficulty getting the number of coaches necessary to effectively run these programs

3. It would be impossible for an administrator to be present at each practice and or event. This would make it difficult to ensure that School District expectations for student behaviour are met by all.

4. Liability issues arise when District personnel are not present.

We regret that schools will not be offering extra curricular opportunities for our students at this time. We understand the clear benefits to children from participating in these activities and look forward to these resuming, hopefully in the near future.

March 7, 2012

As of Thursday March 8, 2012 teachers will have returned from a three-day withdrawal of services. Schools are ALL open and operating on their normal schedules. Until the passage of Bill 22 in the provincial legislature teachers across the province will remain in "phase one" job action. This means that teachers will not be communicating with administrators, completing report cards, doing playground duty, attending staff meetings or other duties previously legally withheld under an order of the Labour Relations Board.

Once Bill 22 is enacted, the job action will cease and teachers will resume their normal contractual duties. This could occur sometime during the week of March 12th, but until the bill passes the BCTF is within its legal right to have teachers withdraw services one day per week. We look forward to having these matters resolved as soon as possible and will keep you updated through our website in the meantime.