Teachers and the Alberta Government have been unable to reach an agreement on a teacher collective agreement. There are two phases of teacher collective bargaining. The first, and current phase, happens at the provincial level. Once a provincial agreement is reached, collective bargaining at the local level will commence. WRSD is not directly involved in the current phase of teacher bargaining at the provincial level. 

It is unclear how long the strike will last. The Division is committed to providing timely updates as information becomes available. All communication to families will be available on the WRSD website.

Only teachers will be on strike. School and division based staff who are not part of the ATA bargaining agreement will continue to do meaningful work.

All WRSD technology accounts will remain accessible to students during the strike. This includes Gmail, Google Drive, PowerSchool, and Learning Services Resources. 

For students who normally take these devices home, they will be allowed to have these at home. However, there will not be additional options to sign out these devices.

Students may take textbooks and library books home during the strike.

Schools will be closed to students during a strike.

All personal property that a student wishes to access during a strike should be removed from the school by the end of the day on Friday, October 3. Schools will coordinate opportunities for students to clear out lockers and desks.

Parents and Guardians can contact the school during school hours. School Admin Support and Support Staff will be at the school and can arrange limited times to retrieve forgotten belongings. Please note that students and parents / guardians will not be permitted into the school and will need to provide the staff member with access to retrieve the item.

WRSD is suspending all school sports. School sports teams cannot meet outside of school to practice or play. For high school sports, School Sport Alberta has indicated that they will adjust provincial competition dates as needed, if it is a lengthy strike.

No. Public access to any school buildings will be suspended during labour action (except Out of School Care).

Schools will be closed to students during a strike. EA’s will not be working with students during this time. Please reach out directly to your school’s Family Wellness Worker to discuss how they can best support your child during the strike. 

This is a concern for teachers and families. Just like summer, we would encourage students and families to read together and play games. SORA - the Student Online Reading APP is fully available with Ebooks and audio books. Students sign in with their WRSD accounts - choose the Wild Rose Library. Alberta Education has released a Curated Parent Toolkit with resources organized by grade level.

Students have access to a these tools creative and education tools with their WRSD account:

• CANVA - creative desktop publishing - posters, videos, images
• WEVideo - full video editing suite
• Curio - CBC, BBC library of learning videos

It is too early to provide an answer to this question, as it is dependent on the length of disruption to student learning. Alberta Education will provide further information to school divisions.

This will vary depending on the fee and the length of disruption. Field trips will likely be rescheduled and sports teams will resume once an agreement has been ratified by both the ATA and the Alberta government. All-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten fees will be dependent on the length of disruption. 

Dual Credit & Golden Hills online courses - the portals or learning management systems for these courses will remain open. Students can work on courses, but have no access to a teacher and no new material will be added. Olds College and SAIT Dual Credit are going to pause instruction and new work from being added. 

Work Experience, RAP and Green Certificate are all supervised by ATA teachers. This means that the accumulation of hours will stop during job action. Students can still go to work and earn money, but they cannot earn credit hours.

All division communications to families can also be viewed on the Wild Rose School Division website. 

If you have a general question that is not answered here, please send your question to ContactUs@wrsd.ca.