Sheril Gelmon joined several dozen parents and their kids outside Vancouver-Fraserview Liberal MLA Suzanne Anton’s office Tuesday morning instead of sending her two children off to elementary school.
“We are really choked that the government and the teachers can’t get together on this,” she said as the opening day of school was cancelled due to the ongoing labour dispute. “And I’m mostly choked at the government. I don’t think that they’re bargaining in good faith. We had a great party in Vancouver and B.C. in 2010 and it cost us all a lot of money and now we’re paying for it,” she said, referring to the 2010 Winter Olympics. “We’re paying for it at the expense of education. Our premier talks about families first and I don’t see where she’s putting families first.”
Gelmon wants the government to budge on class size and composition and invest more money in education.
Anton’s office was the site of one of at least two “MLA Playdates” scheduled Sept. 2 in Vancouver because public schools were closed. Parents and children also planned to gather at Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP MLA Jenny Kwan’s office, according to the new MLA Playdate blog.
MLA Playdate spokesperson Paul Dayson says he and other parents created the @MLAPlaydate Twitter account and blog so parents can better communicate with their elected representatives and one another.
“Parents have come a little late to this game in adding their voice,” Dayson said. “It’s [meant to be] the first day of school and all the parents’ attention is suddenly riveted.”
Parents struggling financially may be most concerned about childcare while classes aren’t in session. Other parents worry whether students with special needs will receive adequate supports once the labour dispute is settled, Dayson said. MLA Playdates aims to pressure politicians to work to achieve a deal.
“There will be a variety of opinions from parents about how that deal should be arrived at,” Dayson said.
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation, the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association and the Ministry of Education have been unable to agree on wages, benefits, class size and composition.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin ruled in January the government must restore collective bargaining provisions that relate to class size and composition and the number of supports provided in classes for special needs. Language was to be returned to their collective agreement retroactively but be the subject of collective bargaining.
The case is to be heard by the Court of Appeal.
Dayson, a resident of Burnaby, said his daughter, who was meant to start Grade 4 on Tuesday, has special needs and it’s been an ongoing struggle to secure her supports at school. He notes language barriers, jobs and other factors can prevent parents from securing the support their child needs.
“There aren’t enough supports,” he said. “So if you go in and successfully advocate, the quiet [for example, autistic] kid who’s struggling in the corner loses their support. I have a friend whose son lost support because he’s easy to manage.”
International students
Vancouver School Board public relations manager Kurt Heinrich told the Courier Friday the district lost less than 10 of the 1,493 registered international students because of uncertainty related to the start of school. International students pay $13,000 a year to study at public schools in Vancouver and the VSB grosses $15 million from the program.
