No immediate plans to cancel Pro-D days for BC schools
Posted September 19, 2014 4:38 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – There are no immediate plans to cancel this year’s Professional Development days to make up for class time lost during the public school strike.
Several districts including Abbotsford, Surrey and Vancouver say cancelling would be tough because Pro-D days are part of a contractual agreement with the BC Teachers’ Federation.
“My understanding is there’s no change and we would not be able to cancel days that are part of a collective agreement and part of the school calendar that we were required to submit to government back in March for the school year,” explains Patti Bacchus with the Vancouver School Board.
“It’s not being discussed at this point…we’re focused on just getting the final preparations for school opening and excited about that,” says Doug Strachan with the Surrey School Board.
Because everyone continues to refer back to the days off being a contractual agreement, News1130 called the BCTF to see if it would consider the change. The union has not gotten back to us.
Districts that have already cancelled Pro-D days for this month, including Surrey and Vancouver, will have to make up those days at some point during the year.
The province has already said amendments won’t be made to the calendar.