Given the current teacher strike situation, parents should not expect report cards in June for students in kindergarten through Grade 9, says School District 27 Superintendent Mark Thiessen.
"When the strike is over, it is possible that June 2014 report cards will be sent home," Thiessen says. "Without the benefit of report cards, parents and students should assume that all students will be progressing to the next grade unless they receive information from school administrators stating otherwise.
Due to essential services legislation, he said teachers have given all the information necessary for staff to be able to generate report card marks for all students in Grades 10, 11 and 12.
These report cards will be mailed to student homes. Marks and attendance will be included in these report cards.
He said provincial exams were written during the last two weeks and school and district administrators have remained busy supervising, and in some cases, marking exams. This is part of the essential services order.
He said the Ministry of Education made the decision on Monday, June 23 to eliminate some written portions of provincial exams.
The purpose of eliminating portions of the exams was to reduce in proportion the amount of marking time to the number of administrators available for marking.
Thiessen said the district also made the decision last week to cancel summer school that was planned for GROW in Williams Lake during July.
"With so much uncertainty revolving around the labour dispute, we are unable to ensure notification to students and guarantee that we would have teaching staff in place," Thiessen said June 25. "This morning, the BCTF announced that any summer school programs in B.C. will be behind picket lines if no settlement is reached."
On June 24,Thiessen said an application was submitted to the Labour Relations Board to have balanced calendar programs in B.C. declared an essential service for the month of July.
"The district is awaiting this decision before proceeding with any of our own decisions regarding this program at Cataline Elementary," Thiessen said.
"We will continue to inform parents through the district website and the media about the status of this program."
At this time, Thiessen also said that all community use of schools and grounds is suspended and it is recommended that user groups seek alternate arrangements.
"The district will not be able to make firm decisions about any community user groups using our facilities until we have more information," Thiessen said.