Cheer and dance championships cancelled as impasse between Sask. teachers, government continues

Liva Sondergaard and her teammates were preparing to defend their city championship Tuesday, but they won't get the chance.

Sondergaard, captain of Saskatoon's Aden Bowman Collegiate cheer and dance squad, said they were disappointed to hear the event had been cancelled due to the ongoing teacher contract dispute across the province. Teachers have withdrawn all extracurricular services for this week.

"I really love this sport and I was upset that I didn't get to experience my Grade 12 year performing at cities," she said.

"That competition was so, so, so fun."

A person holds a sign while walking at a demonstration site during a provincewide, one-day strike organized by the members of Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation in Saskatoon in January. (Heywood Yu/The Canadian Press)

The team won the gold medal last year and Sondergaard was hopeful it would repeat this year.

Cheer isn't the only sport affected. Regular season games for the high school badminton league have been cancelled. So has the opening week of practices leading to the spring track and field competitions.

Teachers across the province pulled out of extracurricular activities on Monday, and some schools divisions had additional noon-hour supervision sanctions.

On Friday, the Saskatchewan Teachers' Federation (STF) released notice of their latest round of job action. It stated teachers are withdrawing from extracurricular activities from March 25 to 28.

On Monday, additional job action impacted noon-hour supervision in these school divisions:

The sanctions come as a result of the ongoing contract dispute between the provincial government and the union, largely over the issue or class size and complexity.

The government has remained resolute in class size and complexity being the responsibility of local school boards, and the STF has said it will return to the table if the government agrees to negotiate on these issues or go to binding arbitration on them.

Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill said he is disappointed in the continued teacher job action and that the STF is focusing their efforts on disrupting learning. (Adam Hunter/CBC)

On Friday, Minister of Education Jeremy Cockrill indicated in an email statement that work is being done to "find a pathway forward" with the STF.

"I will have more to say next week on how we are working to ensure that students get the opportunities they so deserve, including graduation," said Cockrill in the email.

Cockrill also stated previously that the government has moved on many of the items the STF has asked for, and are "prepared to create an accountability framework connected to the historic multi-year funding agreement."

The STF has previously said the funding announced is not guaranteed and the government could change its mind about it in the future.

Samantha Becotte, president of the federation, said she learned about the province's potential framework proposal while speaking with media on Thursday.

The STF said in their release that about 400,000 emails and phone calls have been sent to MLAs and school board trustees in support of the teachers' push to bargain on class size and complexity.