Teachers' decision to withdraw voluntary, extracurricular teaching activities will have "little effect" on the remainder of the school year, said the New Westminster Secondary School's parent advisory council chair.
Mary Ann McKenzie said she met with NWSS principal Mary Bushman last week to discuss the impact of the teachers' decision to stop volunteering.
"All graduation activities are going ahead," she said. "As I understand, a lot of the administrative staff from the elementary and middle schools have volunteered their time to step in where necessary, and parents throughout the school are standing by if they're needed too. A lot of things like the band trips and the choir concerts and band concerts are seen as part of the actual learning outcomes, and I understand that the union has agreed with that, so all of those are going ahead."
Sports and extracurricular clubs could be affected, though, McKenzie said.
"Most major sports are finished other than track and field. That one we don't know what is going to happen right now," she said. "It's still up in the air, and part of the reason is some of these provincial meets are either being cancelled or look like they might not happen.
"Those are the ones that are still a bit iffy when I talked to her (Bushman) last week," she said. "And it's not 100 per cent that they're not happening yet."
Teachers recently voted 73 per cent in favour of a plan that includes refusing to participate in any voluntary activities to protest Bill 22, which imposes a six-month suspension on all strike action by teachers and appoints a mediator to negotiate a deal between the British Columbia Teachers' Union and the government, under strict guidelines.
