You are likely aware that teachers are presently involved in a labour dispute, phase one of which commenced on the first day of the current school year.  As part of this action, members of the BC Teachers' Federation (BCTF) in every school district in the province are choosing to not prepare report cards.  The Labour Relations Board (LRB) ruled that during the current job action, teachers need not prepare or distribute report cards; or provide any student assessment data to principals or school office staff, except for Grade 12 marks required for graduation, post-secondary applications and scholarship purposes.

The School Act requires that parents receive a minimum of three written reports per year.  It is for this reason that schools throughout the province have been directed to send home report cards. Accordingly, the report cards we send home will likely only include the name of the teacher(s), subjects/courses and attendance information.
 
During this phase of the job action, teachers are continuing to plan, teach, gather and record assessment and evaluation information related to your child. Teachers are also continuing to communicate progress to their students through individual feedback, marks on assignments, tests and other indications of progress.

We encourage you to contact your child's teacher directly or contact the school office to leave a message asking that the teacher contact you, should you have any questions about your child's progress.

Teachers are participating in a legal job action. We appreciate that these situations can be difficult, however we remain committed to providing excellent learning experiences for our students in safe and caring learning environments.  We further hope that the two parties will reach a mutually negotiated settlement and that the current labour dispute will come to an end soon.

More information about this labour dispute can be found on our website at: www.vsb.bc.ca/district-news/job-action-information-and-updates

Sincerely,
 
Steve Cardwell

Superintendent of Schools/CEO

scardwell@vsb.bc.ca