MORNING RECESS is being cancelled as of next week for students within the Coast Mountains School District because of ongoing teacher job action tied to their attempts to negotiate a new labour contract.
Teachers had been refusing to supervise students before school, at recess and after school as a first attempt to put pressure on the province and school districts in hopes of winning wage and benefits increases.
That's left senior managers, including principals and vice principals, to fill in but they can no longer do so and still perform their regular duties, explained Coast Mountains school superintendent Nancy Wells in a notice sent home this week.
"Therefore, the decision has been made that beginning Monday, Oct. 3, 2011, we will start school 15 minutes later and go straight through to lunch hour without recess," said Wells in the notice.
Depending upon the school, start times will now range from 9 am to 9:20 am.
Supervision generally starts 15 minutes before the morning start so parents are now being asked to bring their children to school 15 minutes later than normal.
Senior managers, principals and vice principals will still be supervising students before and after schools.
Schools will still finish at their regular times. Bus schedules have been adjusted for the new morning starts.
The province is trying to negotiate a contract that does not increase the overall amount it now pays for salaries and benefits.
Teachers and individual school districts are also in bargaining to settle local issues.
And the province and teachers also need to settle how large classes should be overall and how many students of varying educational abilities should be in each class.