Saskatoon students’ trip to Europe cancelled due to STF sanctions

A trip to Switzerland and Paris for students at a Saskatoon high school has been cancelled as a deal between the province and Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation remains up in the air.

The union has levied sanctions against the government during its ongoing labour dispute, including single-day strikes and withdrawing both lunch-hour supervision and support for extracurriculars

Tracy Laycock’s son, a Grade 12 student at Bishop James Mahoney High School, was supposed to take off on the 10-day trip along with other students from the high school’s travel club, but those plans changed when sanctions affecting extracurricular activities this week were implemented by the federation.

Laycock said the teachers who were supposed accompany students on the trip asked the federation for a half-day exemption, as their flight was scheduled to take off on Thursday afternoon, but their requests were denied.

“I know that teachers tried as hard as they could to ensure that this trip would work, but unfortunately it didn’t,” she said.

Laycock said her son has been looking forward to the trip for a year, and has been saving up money for the adventure with bottle drives and other fundraisers.

“It’s definitely a heartbreaker, because he was a kid in Grade 8 when COVID hit and didn’t have his graduation, and now here he is in Grade 12 with his trip to Europe cancelled,” she said.

Laycock said the trip cost between $4,500 and $5,000. She doesn’t know just yet if she’s able to get all of the money back that she and her son had invested into the trip.

“It’s a lot of money to pay out of pocket, and trip cancellations are never an easy thing,” she said.

Laycock said despite the cancellation, she supports teachers and sympathizes with those educators who are facing issues such as large, complex classes.

“It is definitely a rough thing for all parties involved,” she said.

High school students have also voiced their support for teachers, as students from multiple Saskatoon schools gathered outside of MLA Don Morgan’s office Tuesday, calling for more funding to address class size and complexity in the province.

On Tuesday, federation president Samantha Becotte said she was “extremely disappointed” the dispute with the province has dragged on for so long, but remains hopeful a deal will be made soon.

While teachers have called for increased funding for classroom support, the province has so far refused to include funding in a collective agreement with teachers, instead signing an agreement that guarantees a base amount of $356.6 million for classroom supports over the next four years with the Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

The federation argued that the funding could be clawed back by the government if it’s not included in a teacher contract.

Last week, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the province was preparing what he called an “accountability framework” in connection to the current funding agreement between the province and Saskatchewan School Boards Association.

Becotte said she’s hopeful the agreement can be written into a new contract with teachers, but said the funding also needs to increase each year in order to accommodate enrolment growth and inflation.