Another teachers union took job action against the province today.
The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario participated in pickets across Grey and Bruce counties including two locations in Owen Sound, Saugeen District Senior School and several other schools in various Bruce-Grey communities.
All public elementary schools under the Bluewater District School Board were closed today due to the job action.
Picketers could be found outside the offices of both Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker and Huron-Bruce MPP Lisa Thompson.
The concerns are similar to other teachers unions with larger class sizes being the connecting thread.
For kindergarten teachers like Edie Duncan, the changes have brought an extra hand into the cramped classroom with an early childhood educator assisting, but the cuts will have a very personal impact on her.
“I will lose my job as a kindergarten teacher,” Duncan says. “They're proposing to take kindergarten out of kindergarten and have it run by ECEs.”
Duncan says that uncapped class size is also having an impact on students, with classes of 34 or more 3-5-year-old students there just isn't enough time to give each of them the required attention, even with an ECE helping in the room.
Andrew Chittka, an occasional teacher says that the cuts are hurting the supports offered to occasional teachers.
“We don't know the academic expectations of any of the students, the behavioural expectations. It's really tricky,” Chittka says.
The ETFO and the Ministry of Education have not been at the bargaining table since December 19th 2019.