Students in the Prince Rupert School District will soon be coming home with report cards, but parents shouldn't necessarily expect an update on how their child is performing in class.
A letter being sent to parents in the coming days and weeks explains that producing report cards is not considered an essential service by the Labour Relations Board, meaning it's not a task being undertaken by the teachers.
“The letter is telling parents that the report cards coming will have minimal information on them...The report cards will have the students name, their attendance, the subjects they're taking and the teacher's name. If a class is being taught by an administrator it will have a grade, but otherwise there won't be any grades,” explained superintendent Lynn Hauptman at the November 8 board meeting.
"We will be encouraging parents to contact their students teachers to talk to them about how the student is doing in class.”
Report cards are scheduled to go out by November 18 for Charles Hays Secondary, by December 8 for Prince Rupert Middle School and by December 9 for elementary schools in the district. The information on report cards could change, as the BC Public School Employer's Association has submitted a request that the Labour Relations Board make report cards an essential service, but no ruling has been made on that at this point.
As for the job action's impact on recess, Hauptman clarified that providing recess is not a guaranteed
service for the duration of the job action.
“We continue to help school out with supervision duties...For this particular month we are fine to continue with recess as it is, which we will do,” she said.
“We remain hopeful that the provincial negotiations will come to a timely resolution. In the meantime we thank you for your ongoing patience,” reads the letter.