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Movie shoot at Cultus Film crews will be at the waterpark for five days Jennifer Feinberg The Progress
Chilliwack teachers on the picket line Thursday morning at Sardis secondary. They’ll be back on Tuesday following an announcement Wednesday by the BC Teachers’ Federation that rotating strikes would be extended another week. GREG KNILL/ PROGRESS
Chilliwack teachers join the picket lines Rotating strikes extended another week
Plenty of passion as Chilliwack teachers walk
Katie Bartel
Katie Bartel
The Progress The “one-day” rotating teacher strikes is not being kept to one day. The BC Teachers’ Federation announced Wednesday that it would continue the rotating strikes into next week to further increase pressure at the bargaining table. Chilliwack teachers will be on the picket lines Tuesday, June 3. The BCTF and BC Public School Employers’ Association has been at the bargaining table for a year and a half, but has failed to agree on issues like class size, composition, staffing levels and wages. The acrimony between the two sides is becoming increasingly concerning for those in the Chilliwack school district.
At the school district level, several meetings have been postponed and the development of the new strategic plan has been put on hold as well. “With the rotating strikes continuing, that of course has ripple effects throughout the entire district, and it is very concerning,” said Chilliwack school board chair Walt Krahn. “We have concerns from parents, we have concerns from students, we have students who are anxious with the unknowns facing them. And it is not the positive atmosphere and setting which we normally have.” But Gord Byers, president of the Chilliwack District Parents’ Advisory Council, isn’t faulting teachers. Continued: STRIKE/ p4
The Progress It wasn’t hard to find passionate teachers on the picket lines Thursday. Even if they hadn’t been mandated to be out there for four hour shifts, several said they would have been anyway. Rain and all. “This is all about students,” said Chilliwack middle school teacher Kellie Ganske. “It’s about giving them the best education they deserve.” Something Ganske and her colleagues firmly believe they are not currently getting. CMS teacher Tracy Morphord has 10 students with special needs in one class, but only one educa-
tional assistant. “All of these students have very different needs,” she said. “We do the best we can with what we’re given, but we can’t possibly deal with all their individual needs. “In the media it’s unfortunately been all about wages, but class size and composition is very near and dear to our hearts.” Laurie Sarnaski, a teacher at Central elementary, disparaged over her inner-city school having limited library time due to staffing cuts. Currently Central students are getting a half an hour of library time a week, with no time at recess or lunch. The current teacher-librarian, who has accepted a position Continued: TEACHERS/ p4
It’s going to mean some long hours for people working as extras on a movie shoot at Cultus Lake starting next week. Nickelodeon has announced it will be shooting a made-for-television movie, Splitting Adam, at Cultus Lake Waterpark. Production crews will be setting up and shooting in the Cultus Lake Waterpark for about five days as of Monday, confirmed waterpark owner Chris Steunenberg. “We’ll be open to the public while they’re filming,” he said. “They’ll be taking over a part of the waterpark as well as a section of the parking lot.” The waterpark could figure prominently in the movie. Two casting assistants from BCF Casting in Vancouver were trying to get the details out to Chilliwack on social media recently for any prospective residents who wanted to be extras in the movie. In recent weeks, they’ve been appealing to actors, aged 6 to 30 for paid extra work on the film by asking for profiles to be sent to www. bcfcasting.com. The waterpark opens for the summer season on Saturday. It’s early enough in the season so the filming activity is not expected to cause any headaches, the owner said. “Our parking lot will be sufficient.” There have been attempts to organize film shoots at the waterpark before, but none that were successful, Steunenberg said. “We’re totally into this. We think this will be good for Chilliwack and the surrounding area. It will help promote us as a tourist area.” jfeinberg@theprogress.com Twitter.com/chwkjourno
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