Job action means blank report cards
By Kyra Hoggan
School District 20 parents will be receiving blank report cards today, with no marks entered, just attendance records.
This, because the district is obligated to send home report cards but teachers are not, within the current job action, required to fill them out.
Accompanying the emailed blank report cards is a letter from school district superintendent Greg Luterbach, which reads as follows:
“Dear Students, Parents & Guardians
“As part of the British Columbia Teacher’s Federation (BCTF) “job action” there are a number of facets of the teachers’ duties that they are not performing. Included in the list of duties not being performed by teachers and approved by the BC Labour Relations Board is that teachers need not “prepare or distribute report cards” or meet with parents outside of the regular school day. “Schools will be producing report cards this fall but they will not contain the same detailed information regarding student performance that you may be used to. Basic demographics and attendance information will appear on the report cards but, likely, that is about it. Classes or courses taught by principals and vice principals will have the usual information on how your child is performing at school, according to the reporting requirements of his/her grade. You may be wondering, then, why are we even bothering putting out report cards if the usual information from the classroom teacher will not be on them? The laws and regulations that school districts and school administrators operate under are still in effect. Therefore, we must meet our legal requirement to report. “Given that typical report cards will not be issued and the Labour Relations Board has determined that teachers only need to meet with parents during the instructional day, we are postponing early dismissal dates for the purpose of parent-teacher interviews until further notice. All schools will be maintaining regular instruction on early dismissal days as the time allotted for early dismissal is simply not enough to give all parents the opportunity to meet with their child’s teacher. “I encourage you to contact your child’s teacher(s) to check in directly and inquire about your child’s progress. Please be advised that this decision pertains to all schools in School District No. 20 (Kootenay-Columbia) for the duration of teacher job action. “I apologize for any inconvenience this causes you.”
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