VANCOUVER - Snapping cameras and children buzzing with nervous excitement replaced animosity outside schools where B.C. teachers had been picketing for the first three weeks of the new school year.
Many schools across the province were holding a shortened day with the first instructional day to begin on Tuesday.
Parents accompanying children were all smiles at Elsie Roy Elementary school in Vancouver after the longest ever provincewide teachers' strike.
Dorinha Reynolds says it is an emotional day for her and her sons, ages four and six, because it's like returning home to family members after living in another country.
Donald Kumpf, who walked his 11-year-old son to school, says they're elated that the uncertainty is over and he believes that although the teachers' contract didn't get huge rewards, the stand educators took will help improve B.C.'s education system.
Public school teachers greeted some 558,000 students after walking off the job two weeks before the end of the last school year, cancelling summer school and postponing this term until ratifying a negotiated contract late last week.
