On what should have been the first day of school on Tuesday, many parents took their children to “strike camps” set up across Greater Victoria as the bitter stalemate between teachers and the B.C. government continued.
Several parents dropping off their kids at Archie Browning Sports Centre in Esquimalt expressed anxiety.
Susan Robinson, whose five-year-old daughter, Alexandra Ince, was supposed to start Grade 1 at Macaulay Elementary, said the situation is “not fair to the kids.”
“I wish there was a simple solution, but they seem to be at a stalemate,” Robinson said.
Ten-year-old Jade Chin said she is sad not to be starting Grade 5 at Macaulay Elementary “because I really like school.”
Her mom, Carey Chin, was dropping her off at Archie Browning, which extended its summer camp program to accommodate children affected by the strike.
Chin said the rec centre originally said its licensed program was full, which left the family scrambling to find care for Jade.
The recreation centre is running licensed camps, which involve more structured activities and can accept children in kindergarten as well as older students. Those camps were scheduled from the start to run until 6 p.m., while unlicensed programs, which can accept students from Grade 1 and older and are more free-form and play-based, were originally scheduled to run only until 4:30 p.m.
In an effort to accommodate more families, hours of the unlicensed camps were extended so they end at 6 p.m. instead of 4:30 p.m., said Esquimalt recreation programmer Regan Pemberton.
That made a difference for four families, Pemberton said.
The Chins were one of them. On Sunday night, they got a call from staff at the centre about the extended hours, which better fit their schedule.
Chin said the $167 for a week of day camp is an unexpected cost for the family and the $40-per-child-per-day promised by the government won’t come until after the strike is resolved. “Somebody needs to give, get these kids back in school. She wants to go back to school.”
As View Royal resident Francis Defeudis dropped off six-year-old Astrid at the Esquimalt rec centre, he said his daughter doesn’t fully understand the strike. “She was excited to start school.”
Defeudis has to make arrangements to pick up Astrid from the strike camp. “It works for this week. Next week might be more of an issue.”
Defeudis is frustrated that the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement during the summer. “We’re the pawns. We have the largest stake and the least influence,” he said.
