Dear Parents/Guardians,

We are providing you with an important update regarding elementary teacher contract negotiations and the impact on Ontario’s elementary schools and students (Junior Kindergarten-Grade 8).

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is in negotiations with the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Public School Boards Association (OPSBA) to achieve a new collective agreement. At this time, ETFO is in a legal strike position. ETFO has announced that its members will begin Phase 1 of province-wide job action, sometimes called work-to-rule, on Tuesday, November 26. The job action is a partial withdrawal of services and is not a full withdrawal/strike at this time. During this phase of work-to-rule, schools will remain open and instructional programs will continue. The partial withdrawal of services includes, but is not limited to:

• Not participating in any EQAO-related activities
• Not completing Term 1 Report Cards (teachers will provide the school administrator with a class list of marks for the various subjects/strands taught, or one brief comment per frame for the Kindergarten Communication of Learning)
• Not participating in any school board or Ministry of Education professional learning offered outside of the instructional day

A full list of ETFO’s Phase 1 work-to-rule protocols is available online.

As a result of the job action, principals and vice-principals in our schools will have to take on additional tasks. We appreciate your patience and understanding during this time. As mentioned above, during this phase of the job action, schools will remain open and programs will continue. However, should the work-to-rule progress to include further sanctions, it may have a more significant impact on school activities, permits and school operations. If there is a full withdrawal of services or a full strike by elementary teachers, the TDSB would be required to close schools as there would not be a sufficient number of staff to supervise students and ensure their safety.

At this time, negotiations between ETFO, OPSBA and the Ontario government continue and we are hopeful that an agreement on a new contract can be reached soon. We will continue to update parents/guardians with new information as soon as it becomes available. For ongoing updates, please visit the TDSB webpage for Labour Negotiations and follow @tdsb on Twitter.