Tuesday marks the second day of protests from students as they fight for an agreement between the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government so they can get back to the sport they love before the end of the season.
Job action from teachers this week will see extracurricular activities pulled on Thursday and Friday, overlapping with the start of Hoopla, the provincial high school basketball championships taking place in Moose Jaw.
For the Preeceville Panthers, this weekend would be the first time the senior girls’ team has advanced to Hoopla since 1997.
This would also mark the first year in history the boys’ and girls’ teams from Preeceville will be able to attend the championship together.
“Some of us only get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play here,” Grade 10 Preeceville Panther Kacey Heskin said. “All my free time I have just wasted shooting hoops, doing anything just to get here and this is just all taken away from all of us.”
The teams stood outside the STF office Tuesday, hoping to have their voices heard.
Kacey’s mother Brandie Heskin said it’s hard to watch kids work for something so hard, never missing a practice or a game, just to have it potentially squashed.
“It’s gut-wrenching and it just feels like your heart is being ripped out, watching my child and all these other kids,” she said.
For Grade 12 students looking to play post-secondary basketball, Hoopla is one of the last chances to attract college scouts and scholarships.
Heskin said that while she still stands behind teachers, what the STF is doing isn’t right.
“These little, once every couple of days, noon-hour withdrawals is doing nothing,” Heskin said.
Tess Covlin, a grade 10 Preeceville student, said the STF has lost her support.
“They could have had supporters, but instead they tried taking stuff away, expecting us to be behind them on it,” Covlin said. “Why would the government care about some game? It’s very important to us, but why would the government care?”
The STF called on the government Thursday to “agree to binding arbitration to address the contentious issues of class size and complexity.”
Binding arbitration would involve a submission of the dispute to a neutral party, which would provide recommendations to the province and the union.
STF president Samantha Becotte said she understands the frustration coming from students.
“They want to take part in these extra-curricular activities and teachers want to be providing them those opportunities. That’s why they volunteer … but we can’t continue going to such lengths to fill the gaps in the classrooms,” Becotte said.
She said the government has multiple options it can take for extra-curricular activities to be reinstated.
“Government’s deliberate, conscious decisions to underfund education and reduce the supports and quality of education that students are getting across our province, that has forced us into the position we are in.”
The Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association (SHSAA) said on Monday that the championship could be saved if the government and teacher bargaining committees can lift sanctions in time.
The association said that if teachers aren’t available to participate in SHSAA activities as coaches, officials and organizers, then the events can’t be held.
“To take things away from kids is tough,” said Trevor Otsig, principal of Wynyard Composite High School. “No educator wants to do that. It’s something that kids never get back.”
Otsig’s daughter is hoping to go to Hoopla this weekend.
“I don’t know what else there is unless (teachers) go to full strike,” Otsig said.
At the legislature Tuesday, Education Minister Jeremy Cockrill said the government is the only one that has tried to move towards an agreement.
The Saskatchewan Party confirmed at the beginning of March that the 2024-25 budget will include the largest increase in school operating funding ever in the province’s history — $180 million in increased funding, up nearly nine per cent to $2.2 billion.
“Where has the STF moved?” Cockrill said. “Where has the union leadership moved in the last several months to get a deal done? To get to an agreement is going to take two willing parties. I think from the government side, you can clearly see that we’ve made an effort to get agreement done.”
If a decision isn’t made by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, Hoopla will officially be cancelled.
— with files from Global News’ Brody Langager and Andrew Benson.