HAVING A BALL
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 27, 2014
Peewee Angels win silver at baseball nationals A28
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SCHOOL START UNCERTAINTY
Parents, administrators watching teachers’ strike HELPING WILDLIFE
Tyler OLSEN Abbotsford News
Next Tuesday has been circled on Raven Little’s calendar for months. In January, Little’s five-year-old daughter Serenity began asking her mother if she would be going to school the next day. After answering “not yet” one too many times, Little had her daughter circle the first Tuesday in September on a calendar. Serenity has been crossing off the days remaining ever since. But with no end in sight to the teacher’s strike, Little is now considering when and how to tell her excited daughter that her first day of school might be delayed for an uncertain length of time. “I haven’t told her because I’m hoping that by then it will get figured out,” she said Monday. “There isn’t really a way to say ‘I don’t know when school is going to start.’ ” For the time being, those discussions are on hold as parents, students and local school administrators watch the province and teachers for signs of an impending deal. After a series of rotating strikes began in May, teachers escalated job action to a full strike in June after the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) and the province were unable to reach a settlement. The last public proposal in June saw the BCTF asking for an eight per cent pay hike over five years with a $5,000 signing bonus. The province had offered seven per cent. The sides were further apart on class size and composition, with the province saying the BCTF proposal would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. A mediator was called in over the summer to bring the sides together, and it was hoped that a media blackout would cool tensions and lead to a deal. That hasn’t happened yet. In a letter to teachers released Monday, Abbotsford School District superintendent Kevin Godden said
TYLER OLSEN Abbotsford News
Continued on A7
Serenity McCleary, five, has new shoes and a backpack filled with school supplies for her first day of kindergarten which, along with other public school classes, may not begin as scheduled next week.
A11 Elizabeth’s Wildlife Centre holds open house, launches fundraiser
JACKPOT CONFUSION A3 Lottery corporation reconsiders demand for some of woman’s winnings
ICE BUCKET CHALLENGE A5 Former co-workers doused in honour of Rhonda Graw, who is fighting ALS
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