Looking back at Cochrane history, we realize that history repeated itself last school year, during rotating teachers’ strikes.
Some of last year’s parents might very well have been inconvenienced as students in Fall, 1997 by similar labour unrest over similar issues.
Cochrane Public Library archivist Ardis Proulx-Chedore says children were out of class for nine days, as their teachers battled the Mike Harris Conservative government over Bill 160 – the Education Quality Improvement Act.
The teachers say they were trying to protect their jobs and class sizes among other things, while the province tried to save a billion dollars.
This was all at a time when the government was also merging school boards into regional boards.