HOOPLA has officially been cancelled in wake of the Saskatchewan Teacher’s Federation (STF) cancelling extra-curricular activities around the province this week, according to a release from the Saskatchewan High Schools Athletic Association (SHSAA).
Job action from teachers this week will result in cancelled extracurricular activities on Thursday and Friday, overlapping with the start of Hoopla, the provincial high school basketball championships in Moose Jaw.
Preeceville school senior Cassidy Paterson said she and her teammates are heartbroken.
“You come here, all this way and put everything you have into it, and it’s just gone,” Paterson said. “To have such a high, high at winning regionals and to just be shot down with that announcement that it wouldn’t be going on… it crushes you, honestly.”
In light of HOOPLA’s cancellation, the SHSAA said it would hold a one-day Provincial Basketball Championship in Moose Jaw on Saturday so teams that qualified for HOOPLA can finish out the season.
Each team will play one game against an opponent based on their seeding.
“Throughout this process we have provided government with multiple off-ramps to end sanctions and ensure that activities and events such as Hoopla, the Regina Optimist Band Festival, the Skills Canada Saskatchewan Provincial Competition, and many, many more could take place as originally planned,” read a release from STF. We are deeply disappointed that government simply refuses to meet teachers halfway.”
Students stood outside the STF and government offices Monday and Tuesday, hoping their voices could keep the tournament off the bargaining table.
The STF called on the government Thursday to “agree to binding arbitration to address the contentious issues of class size and complexity.” It said if the government agreed, job action would end immediately.
The SHSAA said on Monday that the championship could be saved if the government and teacher bargaining committees lifted sanctions Wednesday afternoon but the deadline has now passed.
Despite the Saskatchewan Party announcing $180 million extra in school operating funding and nine new schools for the province, it still did not agree to binding arbitration.
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.
“Members of the STF need to contact their union leadership and encourage them to get back to the bargaining table,” said education minister Jeremy Cockrill. “It’s HOOPLA this week, but it’s graduation next month. I don’t think that’s right, to be using students as bargaining chips in this whole issue. If it’s about the kids, the adults need to be at the bargaining table.”