By Sheri Regnier
Trail Times
Parents of school-aged children and recent Grade 12 graduates in School District 20 will receive their child’s report card in the next few weeks, confirmed the district superintendent Friday.
But the information will be basic, and only include an attendance record, grade promotion statement, or in some cases, a “standing granted” notation.
The B.C. public teachers dispute had school districts scrambling to issue year end report cards after a full scale withdrawal of teaching services on June 17.
Although methods of delivery vary depending on each school district, locally, simplified report cards will be issued to K-7 students the first week of July.
By July 11, an attendance record, Semester One final marks, and available Semester Two grades will be issued for Grade 8-9 students.
“Due to the ongoing ongoing labour dispute, we are unable to report in the usual manner,” said Greg Luterbach, SD20’s superintendent in a June 27 email to parents. “Your child has been given ‘standing granted’ or SG for all courses in which final marks have not been provided,” he explained.
Since Grade 8 and 9 marks are not used for scholarship purposes or post-secondary entry, he noted there is no negative impact by the use of the standing granted mark.
“The SG designates that the students will be advanced in those courses to the next grade level,” Luterbach said, adding that parents should contact the school if advancement to the next grade level in a specific course was “not appropriate.”
The school district will email or mail report cards for Grades 10-12 by July 11, including students of J.L. Crowe Secondary, Kootenay Columbia Learning Centre (Trail campus and online learning centre) and Stanley Humphries Secondary.
“Again, due to the ongoing labour dispute we are unable to report in the usual manner,” said Luterbach.
The Labour Relations Board determined final marks for these grades are an essential service and teachers are required to provide the information for reporting to parents and post-secondary.
“This report card therefore provides attendance information and school based final marks only.”
Those final grades will be released to the Ministry of Education, combined with provincial exam results, and made available for students’ graduating transcripts.
“Ensuring that all graduation credits are documented, available for students' transcripts and accessible by post-secondary institutions if requested,” Luterbach added.
In a deal to end the strike, the province’s offer of a $1,200 signing bonus to members of the BC. Teachers’ Federation expired Monday. Class size, wages and support staff numbers are the key issues in the dispute.
B.C.’s labour board ruled last week that teachers must hold summer classes for students in Grades 10 to 12 who failed courses during the year and can’t retake them in the next school year.
The board has asked school districts to submit a list of courses and the number of educators needed to teach them to the teachers’ union by Wednesday.