File photo.
UPDATED: HURON COUNTY - All public elementary schools in the Avon Maitland District School Board are open for regular classes today and school buses will be operating as normal.
One thousand teachers and 10,000 students across Huron and Perth counties are in the classrooms today, following an Ontario Labour Relations Board (OLRB) decision announced shortly after 4 a.m. this morning, ruling in favour of the provincial government. The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and the local union representatives have said that they will respect the ruling, teachers will report to work and the one-day political protest has been cancelled.
However, some parents who made alternate plans for their children after the political protest was announced earlier this week decided not to send their children to school even after the schools were opened.
The board’s communications manager, Steve Howe, said there was 32 per cent absenteeism in 40 elementary schools across the board, attributed to the labour situation.He said bus operators reported “50 per cent ridership.”
“Certainly it’s anticipated there would have been some impact in that people may have already made plans and didn’t want to cancel them, or changed them and didn’t want to change them back. There are a lot of unhappy folks out there,” he said.
“Unfortunately it’s out of the board’s hands. This is a dispute between the province and the teachers’ unions. We just all hope it gets fixed as soon as possible,” said Howe, who got 2.5 hours of sleep last night, waiting for a decision from the OLRB that was originally expected yesterday afternoon.
He said the board looked at the late decision on whether to open or not as the same process followed on a snow day.
“When there’s a weather system coming in, people go to bed at night not knowing what’s going to happen in the morning,” Howe said. “We wanted, if at all possible, to have our schools open. That’s what they’re supposed to be.”
While some school boards across the province decided to close schools ahead of the outcome, the AMDSB announced shortly after 5 a.m. today that schools would be open. Howick Public School, where 100 per cent of the students are bused to school, was closed as a result of icy roads.
This story will be updated.
2 Comments on "Local public elementary schools open today"
4 a.m. is a tad late to make the decision to open schools, isn’t it?
Inconvenient for bus drivers, students and parents and especially for teachers!
Stay up all night waiting for the decision? Go to bed and find out at 6 or 7 a.m.?
Ridiculous! I can see why teachers are upset about Bill 115… McGuilty ( not a typo) is guilty.
“Unfortunately it’s out of the board’s hands”
The legal decision may have been out of the board’s hands but none of this had to be out of board’s hands. The squeezing of local board authority has been incremental for at least 20 years. How soon before the province sees boards go the way of our healthcare LHINS or the way of the Dodo bird?
The snow day process is interesting and wise, IMO. Although it does serve to diminish the negativity of the whole ugly mess doesn’t it?