Another week, another round of school closures.
Renfrew County District School Board schools will be closed today and Thursday as the Elementary School Teacher’s Organisation strikes. The ETFO represents educational assistants and school support councillors in the county in addition to elementary teachers. Meanwhile the Catholic school teacher’s association is planning on staging its second one-day walkout on Tuesday. A new round of rotating strikes is planned this Tuesday by the Ontario Secondary School Teacher’s Federation, but Renfrew County and surrounding areas are not included this week. Teachers across Ontario continue to over issues of class sizes, online learning, and pay.
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association will resume bargaining with the provincial government today, but there’s not a lot of optimism that progress will be made towards ending rotating strikes. Three days of discussions between the province and the Elementary Teachers Federation ended late Friday with no new contract agreement. The Ford government says the teachers’ main goal is a higher wage increase. But the four main teachers unions insist they’re trying to protect the education system, by limiting class sizes and opposing an extension of e-learning courses. Premier Doug Ford says the government is becoming impatient with the labour impasse and the continuing strikes.
With files from Norman Jack