The Peace Wapiti Public School Division is looking forward to 2026 with the students back in the classroom.
Board Chair for the school board, Lorie Grant says despite some of the unexpected challenges in the school year, the board worked together to try and make the best of the teacher strike.
“We couldn’t have done what we did without our admin and executive team, we kept all of our EA’s and bus drivers employed through the entire strike period, because we did not want to risk loosing them,” she said.
Grant says she’s happy to see the teachers back from the strike, but not so happy with how they had to come back.
“We experienced a teachers strike, the first one in a number of years. I am really pleased that the teachers came back, I’m not so happy with how they had to come back, but I’m very happy that they are back.”
Grant mentioned that coming back from the strike can be tricky for all teachers, but that they are trying their best to have everyone prepared for the exams in January.
According to Grant, one of the other big challenges that the board has been facing is the bus cancellations, specifically within the month of December. Grant says that talks with the entire board is likely to happen sometime soon, to find better solutions to keep the kids in the classroom.
“Overall we have had some incidents with busses this year, we are looking at ways that we can approve road conditions so that we can keep our kids safe out there. I understand that we haven’t seen weather like this in a number of years but it is a big factor in stepping up our removal program for our bus routes, because its keeping the kids out of school.”
When reflecting on 2025, Grant says with all of the challenges that they have faced, she believes the board is doing great.
“This year has had lots of up’s and downs, mostly ups I’m happy to report, we have managed to survive it all and we’re all doing well.”
