Toronto’s Catholic school board said it is seeking information on how many of their elementary schools will be forced to close due to a planned strike on Monday.
Without clarification from the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teacher’s (TECT) union, “there is no way to know whether one elementary school will be affected on Monday or whether all elementary schools will xjmtzywbe affected on Monday,” the board wrote in a memo issued Friday afternoon.
On Tuesday night, Toronto’s Catholic elementary teachers handed the board formal notice of their plans to conduct a full strike at one or more schools on Jan. 31 if a tentative agreement is not reached beforehand.
The board said that the strike is tied to two key issues. One relates to improving staff attendance and the other involves the handling of classroom assignments.
However, the union said that their members have been without a contract since September, 2019 and the board is using the “cover of the pandemic” to make “regressive demands” at the bargaining table.
In the event that job action takes place next week, teachers will not be reporting to work and full school closures will take place as a result, the board said.
The board said it has filed an urgent application with the Ontario Labour Relations Board to obtain more information on the upcoming job action and help families prepare for alternate arrangements if needed.
In the event of a school closure due to a strike, the board said third-party child care operators will remain open. However, individual operators will decide on whether to proceed under the circumstances.
The Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) said updates on school closures will be posted on their website.
“We recognize how difficult this news may be given all that has happened during the pandemic. We appreciate all that our teachers and families continue to do to support our students,” the TCDSB stated in the Friday memo.
