THE BATTLEFORDS — As more job action from Saskatchewan teachers looms in the coming weeks — as the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation and the government remain at a bargaining impasse — one mother is calling for them to return to the table.
She says that if extracurricular activities are withdrawn in the Battlefords school divisions next week as the STF continues to argue for more classroom supports, her daughter and other students with the North Battleford Comprehensive High School Band will forfeit a trip to New York.
"So this is a trip that's been planned or in the works for more than a year," Dominique Mannix, who lives south of Battleford on a farm, told SASKTODAY.ca in a phone interview.
She said that though group plans to leave on March 14 and would see the 29-student band perform in New York City, Mannix and her family are worried the trip may not happen at all.
"They've done various things like working at canteens, selling flowers, bottle drive income ... they've basically been fundraising for the last year to be able to go," Mannix added.
Already, Mannix said, a March 5 fundraiser has been cancelled due to job action.
"So now we no longer have that fundraiser in place ... children and the parents will have to come up with that money on their own.
"And then the reason I guess why we're nervous about the trip is because if extracurricular things are cancelled for that following week, then we won't be able to go on the trip."
And if the trip can't go forward, Mannix says her family, but especially, her daughter will be disappointed.
"We were really looking forward to the trip. She's super excited to go with her friends and to be able to perform there.
"So they will be, I think, very disappointed if they're unable to go and, unfortunately, I don't see It being rescheduled for this year ... My daughter is in Grade 10 so luckily for her, maybe she might be able to have a chance to go in Grade 11 and 12, if we kind of get rescheduled for the following years, but anybody who's in Grade 12 This year, they definitely wouldn't be able to go."
Mannix is hoping, instead, that talks between the bargaining committees resume soon and job action is paused so that the trip will go ahead.
"I'm just hoping they go back to the table, and they start talking. I think there's a lot of issues there that need to be addressed. And they need to talk, they need to work it out and find a solution that is good for everybody that works for the teachers, but also works for the students and their best interests," Mannix said.
"I'm just really hoping that, you know, they kind of take notice of how this is affecting the kids," she added, saying that she realized that even though missing a trip is not the end of the world, it is something the NBCHS band has been fighting for.
"I think that these sanctions and things like that are going to continue or continue to get worse unless we go back to the table and figure this out."
Seemingly, the impasse was reached as both the STF and the Government of Saskatchewan disagree on how to negotiate violence in schools and class complexity within the context of a bargaining agreement.
Both parties say the other side will not return to the table.
