{"id":126272,"date":"2025-09-07T09:35:24","date_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:35:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126272\/"},"modified":"2025-09-07T09:35:24","modified_gmt":"2025-09-07T09:35:24","slug":"tumultuous-start-to-alberta-school-year-with-possible-teachers-strike-confusion-over-school-policies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/126272\/","title":{"rendered":"Tumultuous start to Alberta school year with possible teachers strike, confusion over school policies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Alberta parents are bracing for a potential teacher strike or lockout as shifting provincial policies on books and sports also add confusion and chaos to the school year.<\/p>\n

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Last week, contract talks between the Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association and the provincial government broke down. As of Friday afternoon, the two sides remained at an impasse.<\/p>\n

The union has been granted a strike mandate by 51,000 rank-and-file members, and the Teachers\u2019 Employer Bargaining Association has authorization for school boards to lock teachers out.<\/p>\n

Meagan Parisian, vice-president of the Alberta School Councils\u2019 Association, said parents are concerned about the serious impact of a labour disruption, with some families trying to arrange child care or potentially working from home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy elementary kids and my kindergartner will be crushed, because they absolutely love school, they love their teachers and they love their school community. And I think that\u2019s the boat that a lot of students are going to be in \u2014 if there is a lockout or a strike, they\u2019re just going to be crushed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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She said parents also have a lot of questions about many new social policies being discussed or implemented this fall.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta government pauses ban on some books\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

In July, Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s United Conservative Party government announced a ban on books with sexual content in school libraries. That order is now on pause and pending a rewrite.<\/p>\n

Across the province, parents also need to opt in to, instead of opt out of, sex education lessons.<\/p>\n

The government has also prohibited transgender girls 12 and older from competing in female sports, starting this month.<\/p>\n

Some school divisions have started sending eligibility forms to parents asking them to confirm their children were assigned female at birth for them to compete.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"For<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n

For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n

Parisian said altogether the changes are a \u201cbit chaotic\u201d and have triggered a lot of questions from parents about how their kids might be affected.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s \u2018Everything, Everywhere, All At Once,\u2019\u201d she said, referring to the 2022 movie.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAlberta\u2019s new rules for high school sports called misogynistic and transphobic\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Beverly McCool, a parent and caregiver in Grande Prairie, said there are limits to how much child-care operators can accommodate in the case of a strike or lockout.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody\u2019s budgeting to pay for full-day child care in September,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She worries that some families, especially those with children who have disabilities, won\u2019t be able to afford private care without financial support.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to disproportionately affect the marginalized communities, kids with disabilities and low-income families.\u201d<\/p>\n

McCool said some might resort to unregulated child care to cope with possible school closures.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be people having to do what they can to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The new rules related to books and sports, she said, seem to add red tape for families and teachers and might throw some events into question, like a planned book swap event McCool says might not go ahead.<\/p>\n

Locke Spencer has six children enrolled in Grade 3 to Grade 12 in Lethbridge schools. He said he and his wife are lucky to have some flexibility to try to make at-home learning work.<\/p>\n

But he said a strike or a lockout can be somewhat unpredictable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is certainly a source of stress and complexity for many families,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBack to school as Alberta teacher strike looms\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

He said he\u2019s also mindful of potential learning gaps, like those that came from classroom interruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there\u2019s an interruption for two weeks, at the end of the two weeks, it\u2019s not just done and you forget about it. There\u2019s catch-up to do, and that\u2019s a lot of work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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That, too, contributes to the complexity in the classroom that teachers deal with, Spencer added.<\/p>\n

When asked if the province\u2019s policy changes, like the book ban, are top of mind, Spencer said trust in the political system seems to be eroding at various levels of government.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tAlberta\u2019s \u2018Fairness and Safety in Sport Act\u2019 criticized as misogynistic, transphobic\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\tMargaret Atwood takes aim at Alberta\u2019s school library books ban with satirical story\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

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\u201cSome of the things governments are doing, if you don\u2019t have the same confidence and trust in them, certainly can add to stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta Teachers\u2019 Association president Jason Schilling has said the added work for teachers to administer new policies, including removing books from classrooms, has added to their frustration.<\/p>\n

Parisian said school councils across the province stand in solidarity with teachers. \u201cWe know that those working conditions are where our children learn and thrive and become successful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Nate Horner\u2019s office has said a lockout would only be issued as a \u201creactionary response, if it appears that union tactics could harm students and families.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement earlier this week, Horner also called for the union to get back to the bargaining table to get a deal done.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents and students deserve the peace of mind that kids will remain in their classrooms,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Parisian said there\u2019s a silver lining to the chaos and confusion at the beginning of the school year.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s prompting parents to get more engaged, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore parents have been asking more questions about what\u2019s happening within their school community, or what will be happening within their school community this year and going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that will lead to conversations about school boards, and who serves on them, ahead of municipal elections set for Oct. 20.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alberta parents are bracing for a potential teacher strike or lockout as shifting provincial policies on books and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":115808,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[69498,69499,69497,60893,49,48,549,44,714],"class_list":{"0":"post-126272","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-alberta-education","9":"tag-alberta-school-book-ban","10":"tag-alberta-schools","11":"tag-alberta-teachers-association","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}