On top of sports, clubs and semi-formals, schools are now starting to cancel homework clubs and after-school help in light of the escalating job action by the province’s teachers.

“It’s one thing to talk about school plays and musicals, but there’s a lot of children here, a lot of youth — especially in high school — who depend on the extra work before and after school,” said Michael Barrett, president of the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

“We’re talking about elements that are going to significantly impact student achievement. That’s very concerning to me.”

Ken Coran, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said teachers are expected to offer extra help now either by changing their lesson plans to allow more time for help during class, or at lunch or another time during “normal working hours.”

But it’s not clear how this was being done at schools in Durham, Toronto and Halton, where parents learned some after-school homework clubs are now on hold because of the OSSTF directive that teachers not stay after school as of Dec. 10.

Barrett accused both the teachers’ unions and government of heightened tensions given the conflict over the controversial Bill 115, which limits bargaining rights and also imposes cuts to sick-day benefits, unpaid days off and a wage freeze.

MPP Lisa MacLeod, the Ontario PC education critic, said the loss of extracurriculars could mean “the difference between staying in school or leaving, and maybe make a difference between whether or not a student gets into community college” or even university.

Oakville mom Wendy Gunn said her son lined up on Tuesday to buy a ticket for his semi-formal, scheduled for next week, before learning it had been cancelled.

“Who’s going to pay for the cancellation of this huge event, the security and the DJs and everyone else that has to be hired to carry off this event?” she said, noting the venue was booked months ago.

While she supports the teachers at Abbey Park High School, “the problem is we are at loggerheads. The union is not going to sort this out, nor is the government, so who is going to come through for us? It’s going to go on for months, and it could ruin the whole school year for these kids.”

Debra McFadden, the Halton public board’s executive officer of human resources, said each cancellation will be different but that the board would not “be in favour” of parents covering cancellation fees.

Halton high schools also received a letter home from the director of education saying the teacher job action “may impact students receiving extra help after school, evening concerts, after-school clubs and extra-curricular sports.. . . Parents are encouraged to continue to communicate with teachers if they have concerns about their child's academic progress.”

With elementary teachers scrapping field trips starting Dec. 10, it’s suddenly a very busy week at popular school trip sites from the Ontario Science Centre to Casa Loma.

At the Black Creek Pioneer Village, seven groups have moved up their Christmas bookings to this week, before field trips stop, said education program co-ordinator Jennifer D’Attolico. It’s a chance for part-time staff to make up shifts that will be lost from cancellations — there have been at least 10 so far, she said. Pioneer Village is not charging for the cancelled trips.

Since last week, the Young People’s Theatre has had a few cancellations, and others have asked to switch to attend shows this week.

“We’ve heard some teachers are trying to get parent volunteers to step in,” says artistic director Allen MacInnis. But that might present insurance complications, as when parents were stopped from stepping in to coach cross-country teams in September.

Should there be one-day strikes, the theatre may offer a “pop-up drama school” on those days, said MacInnis. “We know some parents will be scrambling and we want to be as helpful as we can.”

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At Scarborough’s R.H. King Academy, students Jalen Innis and Curtis Bentley desperately hoped their three teachers will be allowed by their union to run the school play next Tuesday night, for which some 35 students in two senior credit courses will be marked. One of the teachers adapted Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with a Canadian twist for students enrolled in musical theatre and technical theatre.

“It’s part of our course, so they should be allowed to come — but it’s also at 7 o’clock at night and teachers are supposed to go home at 3:30,” said Curtis, 18. “Already our dress rehearsal Monday will have to end at 3:30 instead of, like, 9 o’clock at night.”

“How has this affected the school?” mused Jalen Innis. “It sucks.”

Meanwhile, Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, said an announcement about upcoming one-day strikes could come by the end of this week.

“It could be more than one board at a time, it could be two to six a day rotating across the province,” he added.

With files from Louise Brown

A primer on Bill 115

What Bill 115 does: Imposes the financial backbone of a two-year deal on teachers; lets them tweak the details locally until Dec. 31 but if no approved deal by then, the government will impose it.

The money part: Two-ear salary freeze, sick days cut from 20 to 10, stops cashing in unused sick days upon retirement, lets new teachers move up salary grid

The labour part: Gives the province the new power to shut down a strike or work-to-rule or lock-out quickly, even before it starts.

Who's opposed: Ontario's public English-speaking teachers' unions, (high school and elementary) plus support staff. Four unions have challenged it in court as unconstitutional.