Sask. teachers' job action forces cancellation of major Regina school band festival
The Downtowners Optimist Band Festival is cancelling the final two days of its annual event due to job action by the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation (STF).
The festival sees over 2,000 students a day and between 6,000 and 8,000 instrumentalists throughout the four-day event, according to Lyle Merriam, festival chairman.
“We’ve lost over half our festival,” he said.
Sanctions placed by STF earlier this week will see a provincewide strike on March 20 and the withdrawal of extracurricular activities, including band, on both the 21 and 22.
This year, the club celebrated the 40th annual Downtowners Optimist Band Festival. The event did run the festival Monday and Tuesday but cannot run on Wednesday and Thursday.
“The teachers do a lot for our kids and we certainly appreciate what they do for our band festival,” Merriam said.
At the festival, students get a chance to perform pieces and receive teaching from world-class clinicians.
“[It’s] a lifetime memory,” Merriam said. “We try to get the best people here for the benefit of the directors and the kids.”
“It’s a big deal,” he added. “Nobody is really happy about it. But it is what it is.”
In a statement Monday, the STF said, “The refusal of minister [of education] Cockrill and Premier Moe to compromise are to blame for the strike and the students’ loss of extracurricular activities in the days to come.”
“It's disappointing that the STF would target these types of activities that kids have worked so hard for all year long,” Cockrill said following Monday’s Legislative Assembly. “Any job sanction the [STF] leadership chooses to do is the choice of union leadership.”
The STF said teachers will be protesting at the legislature when the province presents its 2024-25 budget Wednesday.
Merriam added plans are already underway for the 2025 Downtowners Optimist Band Festival.
“We’ll be back again,” he said.
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