While schools in British Columbia will be closed on Monday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, it won’t be a bonus day off for students in the Kamloops area.

That is because Sept. 19 was already a non-instructional Pro-D Day for students, meaning most parents won’t have to scramble to find childcare at the last minute.

“Our parents fortunately would have already made those arrangements and so I would agree with you that it was just timing that parents did not have to suddenly panic or make different arrangements,” Kamloops-Thompson School District Superintendent, Rhonda Nixon, said.

In additional to public schools, public post-secondary institutions, and most B.C. Crown corporations will also be closed on Monday, as a trigger clause in the contract of B.C.’s public service workers mandates that any federal holiday applies to them as well.

That has led to frustrations from a number of parents across the province as many say they may be forced to stay home if they cannot find child care.

“Our employees were prepared for learning and that has been a little bit of a disruption because speakers were hired and we had already organized professional leaning so that would be something that our staff would be missing,” Nixon said.

“We are fully expecting to rebook the professional learning day when it is workable for the school district and for parents. Knowing how well our parents respond to consultation, we don’t expect there to be any issue at all. We’ll find another day.”

All SD73 facilities will also be closed on Monday, including the district office.

Schools and school district offices will be closed on Monday, September 19, 2022, in School District No. 73 (Kamloops-Thompson) in honour of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral service. pic.twitter.com/K0jc5tdsNo

— Kamloops SD 73 (@Kamloops_SD73) September 14, 2022