High school students in Saskatoon are reacting to news that their teachers won't be coming to school on Thursday because of a one-day strike across Saskatchewan to pressure the government for better wages. While students at Saskatoon's Aden Bowman Collegiate are pretty happy about getting a day off, one teen says he's still fed up with the feud and is concerned the strike will last more than one day. "They're doing it now and they're just doing it to show that they will do it. They're obviously not going to get what they want if they've been fighting about it for this long."

A new playground with aspects designed to be suitable for hearing impaired children is scheduled to be built at St. Philip School in Saskatoon in October.
 
“It’s going to be a unique playground in that sense, probably the only one in the city,” said Ryan Lacoursiere.
 
Rather than waiting for funding to be allocated by the city or the school division, Lacoursiere and his team of eight other St. Philip community members took it upon themselves to make improvements to the park.
 
“The idea is that it’s a community build,” he said.

Some Saskatchewan teachers are feeling uneasy after finding out their school division is facing a $2.7 million shortfall heading into the new school year.

Prairie Spirit School Division, which includes communities surrounding Saskatoon like Warman, Martensville and Clavet, is the fast-growing school division in Saskatchewan.

"Our school division is underfunded when we compare it to other school divisions in the province," said Larry Pavloff, the division's board chair.

In their continued efforts to find efficiencies and trim excess spending, the University of Saskatchewan’s TransformUS task forces announced the final criteria they will use to evaluate every service on campus.

Like grading a paper, task force members will evaluate all academic and support services according to two lists of weighted criteria to save the cash-strapped  university as much as $25 million annually.

The announcement follows a month-long community consultation period where the university collected opinions and suggestions from staff and students.

Students at F.W. Johnson Collegiate in Regina hit the high notes last week, as they showed off their hard work from the Build the Band program.

The program, in its second year, works with Regina Public Schools bringing in Regina Symphony Orchestra members to mentor band students in the areas of performance, song writing and arts management.

"We were asked at the end of last year by the Regina Symphony Orchestra to partner with them," explained Alison Thiele, band and choral director at Johnson Collegiate.

Interest in the space program has blasted off at the Saskatchewan Science Centre, all thanks to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Hadfield became the first Canadian to command the International Space Station for the last part of his five-month mission on board.  On Monday, he leaves the space station to return home to earth.

First it was the geese but now kids are flocking to Wascana Marsh, an urban wetland in Regina that is just east of the city's lake.

The Wings Over Wascana nature festival brought out families for a day of exploration on Saturday.

Young Mackenzie Hrynowesky was one of dozens of children taking part in a geocache treasure hunt.

"We have to follow the compass and we're looking for a hidden container," she explained while holding her mother's hand.

Jeff Bliss is getting some online notoriety after a fellow student captured his passionate rant about the teacher's methods of instructing.

A video that started out as an assignment for university has gone viral on YouTube.

Sarah Zelinski, Kayla Hatzel, and Dylan Lambi-Raine were looking for a good grade in their Women and Gender Studies class at the University of Saskatchewan and in turn have received some internet fame.

“When we were coming up with the idea and filming and shooting, I was like: 'I want this to go viral,' but it was totally in fun,” said Zelinski.