Monday, October 31, 2022
Dear Parents and Guardians,
As you have likely heard in the media reports, on Sunday, October 30, 2022, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing education鈥痺orkers across the province,鈥痑nnounced that they will begin a province-wide full withdrawal of services effective Friday, November 4, 2022, if a provincial settlement is not reached by then. I am writing to let you know that if CUPE proceeds with a full withdrawal of services, all HCDSB schools will be CLOSED to students on Friday, November 4th.
CUPE鈥痳epresents a number of our school and system support staff across HCDSB, including:
- Custodial Staff
- Designated Early Childhood Educators
- Educational Assistants
- English as a Second Language (ESL) Instructors
- Information Technology (IT) Technicians
- Language Instruction for Newcomers鈥痶o鈥疌anada (LINC) Instructors
- Library Technicians
- School and Board Administrative Office Staff
As the situation continued to evolve throughout today, we have been gathering information and exploring all contingency plans that would allow us to keep schools open in the event that CUPE education staff proceed with a full withdrawal of services on Friday. After a great deal of deliberation, we have had to make the difficult decision to close all schools to students on Friday, November 4, 2022. We will move to remote asynchronous instruction on this day. Schools will be reaching out to families directly to assess technology/device needs.
The decision to close our schools is in keeping with many other Catholic Boards across the province who have a large portion of their employee groups represented by CUPE. We regret that this will pose challenges for parents and guardians who may have to find childcare arrangements, however closing schools is the only way to ensure the safety and well-being of our students and staff. Our CUPE staff provide a number of critical supports and essential services in our schools. Without their support, we cannot maintain a safe learning environment for our students.
Information Updates
As new information becomes available, we will provide updates through:鈥���
- Emails to parents
- HCDSB’s website鈥�
- 罢飞颈迟迟别谤:鈥�
Although HCDSB is not directly involved in the provincial (central) negotiations, we value all of our staff as dedicated, caring professionals, and we remain committed to the success of the negotiation process, at both the provincial and local levels.
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this period of job action.
John Klein
Director of Education
