The North Battleford Comprehensive High School Band. (NBCHS/Facebook)

By Angela Brown

School trip

School band’s trip to NYC still on, regardless of sanctions

Mar 13, 2024 | 4:31 PM

North Battleford Comprehensive High School (NBCHS) Band’s planned trip to New York City is still moving ahead, despite teachers’ sanctions underway.

Saskatchewan teachers withdrew their time for extracurricular activities from Monday to Wednesday this week, as part of ongoing job action. Since the band trip starts the day after, on Thursday, that leaves it in the clear to go.

Parent Dominique Mannix, whose daughter, a Grade 10 student, is in the band, is relieved the trip can go on. Mannix’s husband is one of the chaperones on the trip.

“It looks like everything is a go ahead because there aren’t any strike actions in our area for that day,” she told battlefordsNOW. “They [the kids] are leaving bright and early in the morning [Thursday]… There’s nothing scheduled in our area Thursday or Friday of this week, so we’re able to go.”

“The kids are really excited to go,” Mannix added. “So they’re pretty happy. The fact that we’re able to go is great.”

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A total of 29 students from Grades 8 to 12 in the band, four teachers and two parent chaperones will take part in the trip, running March 14 to 18.

As part of the event, the kids will take part in three performances at different locations, participate in a workshop, visit Radio City Music Hall and Birdland Jazz Club, and see a musical.

Mannix said the trip had been planned for over a year.

“We were certainly getting worried, especially as it’s getting closer to [the departure date], and they [teachers] seem to be getting more sanctions. We were definitely worried that we weren’t going to be able to go, but luckily the way things were planned, it didn’t hit on a day for us for travelling, so we are actually able to go,” she said.

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF) is required to provide at least 48 hours notice to school divisions and the public prior to any job action.

Mannix said since they didn’t issue any notice, the trip should be able to move ahead.

“If they do end up cancelling anything, or adding anything, while we’re already gone on our trip, then we just continue with our trip,” she added. “The teachers wouldn’t be able to go on the trip if there were sanctions. The trip would be cancelled.”

The only hitch for the trip is that a Mardi Gras coffee house fundraiser at the school that was planned for March 5 couldn’t go ahead due to teachers’ withdrawal of extra curriculars that day. The fundraiser would have helped pay for the close to $3,000 cost of bussing the band from North Battleford to Saskatoon for the flight. The parents will now look after that cost.

“We’re hoping once we come back, we can maybe still have some kind of a fundraiser then,” Mannix said. “We just weren’t able to do it before we left.”

Each student put in about $3,400 for the trip, much of which was fundraised.

“We’re very excited and happy that this is able to go ahead,” Mannix said. “I’m still hopeful that everybody gets back to the table, so that the rest of the kids aren’t losing their extra curriculars and other things as well, and also so that we can sort out all of the issues that need to be dealt with, and help out the students and the teachers both.”

The Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation wants the province to address issues with class size and classroom composition before it can sit down and negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement, while the province believes these issues are better dealt with by the local school divisions instead.

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On X: @battlefordsnow