School District 43 hallways were virtual ghost towns today, as most of the district's 30,000 students stayed home from school while their teachers began three days of job action.
Only 56 students showed up to do homework, crafts or worksheets, according to SD43 spokesperson Cheryl Quinton, about half of them were secondary school students.
Administrators and support staff were still working at local schools but parents had been advised to make alternative arrangement for their children for the three day job action and most complied with the request.
Still, 26 students turned up at high schools, and 13 children showed up at elementary schools and 13 at middle schools today. However, it's not known why they showed up because administrators weren't asked to poll students as to why they were there, Quinton said.
Some districts in the province had vowed to send students home or ask their parents to pick them up. But that wasn't the case in School District 43, which serves Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Port Moody, Anmore and Belcarra. Instead, administrators gave kids things to do to keep them busy and the activities varied depending on the student's age, Quinton said.
Because so few students showed up excluded staff and managers didn't have to go to schools to help with supervision and SD43 was able to allow on-site private daycares to open from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to accommodate families needing care. The decision was made Monday morning after it was determined that only a few children had arrived at school and gyms and libraries weren't needed to look after them.
Daycare operators only found out that morning, however, the extended hours "will be of benefit for people Tuesday and Wednesday," Quinton said.
Meanwhile, teachers set up protest lines across the district and a drive by Port Moody and Gleneagle secondary schools, Moody middle and elementary schools and Glen elementary found groups of teachers holding signs and waving to cars.
