The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is closing all of its schools this coming Friday.
All in-person learning is being cancelled due to the planned provincewide protest by education workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
The board says the closure to in-person is in accordance with provisions in the Education Act and in the interest of the health and safety of our students and staff.
CUPE represents about 400 employees of the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board including educational assistants, designated early childhood educators, child and youth workers and other paraprofessionals such as psychologists, sign language interpreters and psychotherapists.
Although schools will be closed for in-person learning, all other non-CUPE staff will be expected to report to work on Friday, Nov. 4.
Parents and students can expect that teachers will post school work to their Google Classroom so students can work from home on Friday.
Parents can also expect that all child care centers that operate in our schools will remain open, unless they are notified otherwise by individual operators.
CUPE has indicated this will be a one-day protest, however should it continue into next week, we will communicate with parents about next steps.
The Greater Essex County District School Board has already announced all of its schools will be open on Friday. Updates on the situation at schools within the public board can be found here.
Officials at the Catholic board say the CUPE membership with our school board is different from the Greater Essex County District School Board, where ECEs, EAs, and CYWs are not included in their bargaining unit.
Further updates on the situation at the WECDSB can be found here.
CUPE represents 55,000 education workers across Ontario who plan to protest after the Ontario government introduced legislation to impose a contract on the education workers and ban them from striking upon threat of steep fines.
CUPE negotiators presented a counter-offer late Tuesday night in response to the imposed contract terms in the legislation and the government is to review it.