Written with files from Shawn Slaght
With pending job action for five school divisions on Wednesday, the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation gave 48-hour notice on Monday that noon-hour supervision will be withdrawn on Thursday.
Locally, this announcement will affect schools within the Sun West School Division, Living Sky School Division, and Leader area students within the Chinook School Division, and it means teachers will not be available to supervise students who are eating lunch at school or taking part in noon-hour activities. Teachers will not even be in the building during each school’s lunch break, as according to the STF, lunch-hour supervision is done voluntarily by teachers.
In an online release, the Sun West School Division confirmed that, “Principals will be enacting a supervision plan created in the event of withdrawal of services,” and that, “there will be no disruption to the supervision of students during recess”. Their statement also confirmed that specific information will be shared by the individual school itself
“In the interest of student safety during this withdrawal of service, we are encouraging parents to pick up their children or have them walk home for lunch if possible.” it shared. “We respect the collective bargaining rights of all Sun West employees. Our focus is always on student safety and in the event of job action, minimizing disruption to student learning.”
The Sun West School Division has yet to be included on the list of upcoming STF rotating strikes.
