EDUCATION UPDATE FOR THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH, 2022

November 17, 2022

Dear BGCDSB Families,

The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has announced a full withdrawal of service to go into effect this Monday, November 21, 2022 unless a full negotiated settlement is reached prior to that date.

For the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board, this withdrawal of service will include our Educational Assistants, Custodians, Secretaries, Early Childhood Educators, Librarians, and CUPE staff at our Catholic Education Centre. This comprises approximately 420 permanent and casual employees (about 41% of our staff). After assessing the safety risks for our students, the Board has made the very difficult decision to close schools to students in the event of a strike. Safety for all remains the Board’s primary concern and was the predominant factor that was considered in making this decision. As such, all Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board schools will be closed to students as of Monday, November 21, 2022 unless a new central agreement between CUPE, and the Government of Ontario has been reached.

While we remain hopeful that negotiations this weekend will be successful and a strike can be averted, we encourage families to make alternate child care arrangements for next week, beginning Monday. Please check the “CUPE Work Action Update” section of the board web page (bgcdsb.org/labour_update/) for regular updates. The before and after school programs will be closed as well. The Brockton Child Care and Wooden Hill Child Care Centres will remain open.

In case of a strike on Monday please encourage your child(ren) to bring home all of their belongings before the weekend including their Chromebooks. If your child in Kindergarten needs access to a device please connect with your Catholic School Principal.

• For Monday, November 21, 2022 – Asynchronous Learning Lesson(s) will be posted on the Google Classroom / D2L
• On Tuesday, November 22, 2022 we will begin Synchronous Learning. Please check your child(rens) Google Classroom  / D2L.

We very much appreciate your understanding and thank you for your ongoing commitment to Catholic education. As circumstances change we will continue to communicate with you. Again, we still remain hopeful and pray that a settlement can be reached before Monday morning.

Respectfully yours,

Gary O’Donnell
Director of Education

Lori Di Castri
Chair of the Board