B.C. teachers’ strike forces one school district to cancel some summer classes

ABBOTSFORD, B.C. – A Vancouver-area municipality has cancelled some of its summer classes because of a provincewide teachers’ strike in British Columbia.

Abbotsford’s school district says it will not have classes for students who want to get a head start on the next school year.

Superintendent Kevin Godden says these courses cannot happen because the B.C. Teachers’ Federation has decided to picket summer schools.

But the province’s labour board ruled schools must hold summer classes for students in Grades 10 to 12 who have failed a course and cannot retake it next year.

Godden says courses deemed essential by the board’s ruling will go forward.

More than 40,000 teachers across the province went on a full strike on June 17, indefinitely cancelling classes for more than half a million public school students.