Dear Elementary Parents and Guardians,

We wanted to provide you with an update on job action being taken by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), which is in ongoing contract negotiations with the Government of Ontario and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association.

ETFO has indicated that they will be proceeding with their previously announced strikes this week. As a result, all TDSB elementary schools will be closed to students on the following dates:

• Thursday, February 6, 2020 – province-wide strike
• Friday, February 7, 2020 – rotating strike impacting the TDSB

ETFO has also recently announced strikes for the next week on the following dates:

• Tuesday, February 11, 2020 – province-wide strike
• Wednesday, February 12, 2020 – rotating strike impacting the TDSB

As with previous strike days, the TDSB would have no other option but to close all elementary schools to students on these days as there would not be sufficient supervision to ensure their safety. Parents/guardians should make alternate arrangements for their children on these dates.

Child care centres located in elementary schools will be permitted to stay open. Please contact the child care provider directly for more information. TDSB Extended Day Programs will also be open to currently enrolled students for a full day of programs. EarlyON Child and Family Centres will operate during their regular hours.

Should the strikes continue as planned, all International Languages Elementary and African Heritage classes would be cancelled. However, all adult non-credit programs, such as Adult ESL and Learn4Life, will continue to run.

As a reminder, please note that Friday, February 14, 2020 is a PA Day for parent-teacher interviews and Monday, February 17, 2020 is a provincial holiday – Family Day.

Should there be any significant updates or changes to the strikes planned for this week or next week, we will communicate directly with parents/guardians as quickly as possible. As always, for ongoing labour updates, please visit the TDSB website and follow @tdsb on Twitter.