Steps being taken to issue report cards: Rainbow School Board director
As the school year gets ready to wrap up, the director of education for the Rainbow School Board in Sudbury says steps are being taken to ensure students go home with a final report card.
Elementary school teachers are practicing work to rule action, and part of that is not submitting comments on report cards.
Norm Blaseg said the board is working to ensure something is sent home.
"We as a board feel that students and parents deserve a report card," he said. "We have endeavoured over the last two weeks to ensure that they will receive a report."
He said students in Grades 1-6 will receive a report with letter grades, while grade seven and eight students will get a percentage mark for each subject. Students in junior and senior kindergarten will have "anecdotal" comments on their report cards, he said.
Teachers have submitted marks to the board, and administrators have put them on the report cards, Blaseg said.
Doug Shearer, the chair of District School Board Ontario North East, said it's a similar situation in that board, as students will receive grades but no comments.
"Parents are able to contact teachers if they have concerns," he said. "It's unfortunate but we're managing the situation."
'Battle of the titans'
As for what happens after this school year, Blaseg said "everybody is uneasy about the situation."
"The politics of it is such that there's a government that has this huge deficit. And, of course, the unions ... want fair compensation for what they do," he said. "It's a battle of the titans."
Shearer said his board is concerned about losing students to other boards.
"It has happened the last time there was a major disruption," he said. "We did lose some to other boards, but they seem to come back after a short period."
Blaseg said his board isn't as concerned about losing students.
"All four boards are going to be in a similar situation come September," he said. "So there probably wouldn't be any advantage to anybody considering moving from one board to the next."
Some school boards in southern Ontario have announced report cards will not be issued at all to students. Shearer said his board considered that approach, but said between the principals and administrative staff inputting the grades, students will get report cards.
Both Blaseg and Shearer said end-of-year field trips have not been affected.
A strike earlier this year is affecting some high school students in Sudbury, as students with the English public board are not writing final exams.
"We extended the school year," Blaseg said. "We removed the final exams and so students have to be at school at least until this Friday."