Teachers and students said goodbye to one another on Friday, as a looming strike next week leaves it unclear when more than 700,000 children in Alberta will return to school.
Public, Catholic and francophone schools across Alberta are expected to close on Monday as 51,000 teachers are poised to go on strike.
The labour action is leaving some parents scrambling to find child care and alternative learning options for their kids.
Meagan Parisian, vice-president of the Alberta School Councils Association, said a lot of parents have felt anxious since it became clear a strike was possible. Parisian said the strike is forcing parents who don't have the option of working from home to make difficult choices to find child care.
"This is the point where folks come together as community and lean on each other as much as we can, and that's a beautiful thing. But it's unfortunate that we may have to lean on each other so much, depending on how long the strike lasts," said Parisian, who has three young children.
She's worried about learning continuity and how much extra time or tutoring will be needed to get students back on track when they return to school, especially for high school students who will need to prepare for diploma exams and apply for post-secondary schools.
"Parents, of course, are feeling those same anxieties," said Parisian.
'We feel really helpless'
The break in the school year will be especially hard on parents who are newcomers to Canada, said Immigrant Outreach Society founder Adanech Sahilie.
The organization has been receiving non-stop calls from panicked parents, Sahilie said, especially from those who only recently obtained a job that could be complicated by finding child care.
"Honestly, they don't know what to do, and we feel really helpless in this situation," said Sahilie, whose organization is fully booked to assist parents by providing information and counselling next week.
A lot of the parents her organization works with will find it difficult to afford to send kids to camp, the YMCA or anywhere else, Sahilie said.
And for parents who already struggle with their mental health, the strike will add another level of stress, she said.
School disruption options
Parents of students aged 12 or younger whose school year is being disrupted can apply to receive $150 per week from the provincial government during the strike. The first payment is planned to be made on Oct. 31.
The government also announced Friday that after five consecutive days of teachers striking, it will increase subsidies for full-time child care for children in grades one through six to summer rates. That will apply for the entire month of October.
Parisian said while this is a great perk for parents who can apply, families who can't front load costs before the end of the month, and parents of students with specialized supports who are older than 12, won't benefit from it.
The province also plans to offer an online learning toolkit that follows the K-12 curriculum, and is temporarily lifting the 10-credit per year limit on distance education.
Some tutoring centres in the city have been swamped with calls from parents looking to make arrangements due to the strike.
Private businesses around Calgary are planning daytime programming to support parents during the strike. And provincial heritage sites and museums are offering free admission to Albertans aged 18 and under during the strike.
WATCH | Daytime services offered for Calgary students during disrupted school year: Registrations filling up for day camps in preparation of potential teachers' strike Duration 1:41 The City of Calgary has opened up registrations for newly added youth programming to provide families with options should teachers walk off the job on Oct. 6.
In the meantime, school boards in Calgary and around Alberta have notified families that barring a last-minute deal being struck, classes will be paused beginning Monday.
Marliss Visser, who has worked as a teacher for 28 years, said it pulled at her heartstrings to say goodbye to some of her students this week.
"We've been working all month to get into routines, to build relationships. There was trust happening, and now we're like, 'OK, we'll see you and we don't know when we'll see you next,'" said Visser.
"It's hard emotionally for teachers and I think for students."
[SRC] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/parents-teachers-scramble-strike-1.7650528
