By Andrea Klassen – Kamloops This Week
The president of the Kamloops-Thompson Teachers’ Association said School District 73 brass didn’t give teachers a chance to agree to a compromise that could have preserved a two-week spring break in 2018.
David Komljenovic said the KTTA met only twice with district officials for half-day bargaining sessions and was not given a chance to discuss the possibility of merging spring break with the Easter long weekend before SD73 called the negotiations to a halt and announced a one-week break for the next school year.
Superintendent Alison Sidow told KTW in an earlier interview that merging Easter and the break was one of the options on which staff and teachers could not agree.
The school district also suggested teachers move some professional development days outside of the regular school calendar to make up for the five days of instructional time that would be lost to the break.
But Komljenovic said teachers were interested in discussing the Easter proposal.
“We came yesterday and suggested that was something we were willing to entertain, but they concluded negotiations,” he said.
The KTTA also felt the district’s previous strategy of making up lost educational time by extending the school day was working well, despite concerns from the district that the extra minutes were not adequately replacing lost days.
He said it’s not clear why the district is so concerned about lost instructional days during spring break when its Sun Peaks schools, which operate on a four-day calendar, are permitted to miss upward of 40 instructional days per year.
Trustees first chose to go back to a one-week break at the beginning of the year, with some trustees citing concerns the extra week out of school could be a hardship for some.
After an outcry from some parents and teachers, the board took another vote on the issue in March, opting to stick with the one-week break unless it reach an agreement with the KTTA.
