Teachers, students sleep in Sask. schools because of spring storm

Many students and teachers around Saskatchewan had unusual sleeps Monday night, after a snowstorm forced them to sleep in school due to treacherous road conditions.

Herbert School principal Chad Striker said he had seven teachers and staff who had to sleep at work.

“Our office manager slept on top of the high jump mat. Others slept in their classrooms on gym mats,” Striker said. “There’s always something bizarre that can happen in teaching. This happens but our staff rallied around it.

“It’s bizarre, it’s out of the ordinary but you live in Saskatchewan and this sort of thing happens.”

Striker says this is the first time in at least the last three years that people have been storm-stayed at Herbert School.

Despite the less-than-ideal sleeping arrangement, staff were treated to a nice breakfast in the morning.

“One teacher’s family came in (Tuesday) morning at 7:30 and made everybody a pancake breakfast and made sure they were taken care of,” Striker said.

“Morale was pretty high. They’re still in good spirits. We had fewer kids in the building (Tuesday) so we’ve sent some staff home to get some rest so there will they’ll be prepared for (Wednesday).”

Schools in Stewart Valley and Success also had people sleeping in their classrooms Monday night, as highways were closed throughout southwest portions of the province.

Storm stayed at the school tonight. A big thanks to the billet families of Stewart Valley, as well as those who provided us with food and blankets! pic.twitter.com/GQzjpU6KZi

— Stewart Valley School (@SV_Stingers) March 30, 2021

Our staff and some of our students had an impromptu camp-out last night due to the awful travel conditions.

A MASSIVE thanks to a few of our community members who provided some bedding, our daycare partners for loaning us some food, and our amazing staff for the extra efforts. pic.twitter.com/VnHtX9UFtI

— Success School (@SuccessSchool4) March 30, 2021

Striker said despite this being the first time in a few years that teachers at his school had been forced to sleep in the confines of their classrooms, the last 12 months have featured some of the worst weather he has seen.

“This has been the most intense and severe weather school year I think we’ve ever seen,” he said. “We had that massive snowstorm in November and we couldn’t get people into the building. Then we had that two weeks of minus-45 wind chill in February and then we got this wind and snowstorm in March.

“I’m starting to think, ‘What’s next, a flood?’ ”

Monday’s storm saw a grocery store sustain serious damages, cardlocks toppled and power knocked out for thousands of people.