Students, parents and teachers were awake before the sun rose in Alberta on Wednesday morning, packing lunches, arranging backpacks and zipping coats — starting their back-to-school routines for the second time this school year.
A weeks-long, provincewide teachers’ strike is over, after the Alberta government fast-tracked a bill this week that invoked the notwithstanding clause.
It forced 51,000 public, Catholic and francophone school teachers back to their classrooms — and imposed a deal on them that 90 per cent of teachers had already voted to reject during negotiations.
There were mixed emotions during drop-offs at schools throughout the province, as roughly 750,000 students packed into their classrooms once again.
Read our recap of the first morning back at school after the strike ended:
“[My husband has] been having a hard time with it,” Lucy Lacoursiere, whose husband was among the striking teachers, told CBC News while dropping her daughters off at an elementary school in Edmonton.
“I’m happy they’re back because they’ve been missing it, but I wish the circumstances were different.”
Grade 11 student Giah Rai echoed that sentiment.
“We just want the best for our teachers,” Rai said. “We wanted to see them thrive and [be] happy with … what they’re teaching. But now that we’re back, it’s upsetting to see our teachers like this.”
Adjaino Enyemike, who has five kids in school in Edmonton, was relieved to drop them off Wednesday morning.
“Oh my God, I’m so excited they are going back to school,” she said while parked in her car.
At the same time, Enyemike is split about the return when it comes to teachers. She said she feels they shouldn’t have been forced back, but that the government had to find some kind of solution to get students back in school.
She said she hopes the parties are able to fulfil what teachers have asked for.
Robyn O’Brien, who has a child in kindergarten, told CBC News she thinks the government has an opportunity now to regain some public trust.
“I think there’s been a lot of trust that’s broken, especially with parents,” she said Wednesday morning. “I stand with our teachers completely.
“They have every right to strike and the government took that away. I think we should all be really scared right now. I think it’s a bit of an alarm bell, honestly, for everybody in the working force.”
The provincial government says it will now form a task force to address class sizes and classroom complexities, such as supporting students who have behavioural issues, or for whom English is a second language. Both of those issues were core sticking points during negotiations.
Educators who attended massive rallies during the strike told reporters that current classroom conditions are unsustainable and affect their teaching.
As teachers and students poured back to classes Wednesday morning, some parents and youth alike expressed concern that everyone is returning to those same environments.
Kayla Frost’s son, a Grade 4 student at St. Gregory Catholic School in Hinton, Alta., is on the autism spectrum. She recalled Wednesday that in his earlier school years, he struggled without proper support and would act up.
Sometimes, the school would call her in the middle of the day, asking her to pick him up, she said, adding that it was “directly because of lack of funding and EAs (educational assistants) and things like that, because there just wasn’t enough for the amount of kids in our school.”
Students at Dr. Anne Anderson return to class after teachers’ strike
School boards posted on their websites and social media feeds, advising people that activities like sports and performing arts could be affected as teachers return to work.
“As teachers return to work, they will be focused on teaching and learning in classrooms,” Joanne Pitman, Calgary Board of Education (CBE) chief superintendent of schools, said in a video posted on Facebook.
“Activities and events, such as athletics, field trips, extracurriculars and school council meetings, may need to be delayed, rescheduled or cancelled.”
The strike led to students missing 17 school days, and questions remain over how that time will be made up.
In Alberta, students in kindergarten to Grade 9 require 950 hours of instruction per year, while high school students need 1,000 hours.
Education and Childcare Minister Demetrios Nicolaides has yet to decide whether schools will be expected to make up the lost time by adding minutes or days to the school calendar.
Many students who spoke to CBC News on Wednesday said they are worried about how their learning will be affected, particularly students in higher grade levels — some of whom are preparing for post-secondary.
“I’m going to have to take online learning probably now just to catch up and I absolutely cannot deal with online learning,” said Noah Masters, a Grade 12 student at Lindsay Thurber Comprehensive High School in Red Deer.
“I’m scared because it’s going to reflect on my diploma and getting into universities.”
The provincial government made diploma exams scheduled for November optional, but those set for January and June have not been changed.
Students speak about heading back to school after a three-week teachers’ strike
Denver Knodel, a parent in Medicine Hat, Alta., is a youth camp counsellor in the summertime and works with a group of teenage boys in the wintertime through his church. He said the boys are getting stressed, especially about ensuring they graduate on time.
Meanwhile, other students, like Quinn Raiwet, a Grade 11 student in Grande Prairie, Alta., are worried about the catch-up to come in the classroom.
“I’ll probably try to study more and lock in a little more … than I would have had to before, because [of the] lack of time,” Raiwet said.
