Students were in class today across the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, but custodial woekers will need a little more time to clean up before facilities can be rented out to community groups.
On Friday, the board announced it would be closing all Catholic Schools to students in the district if there was a CUPE strike on Monday. The board learned late Sunday night that a strike had been averted and that a deal between CUPE and the provincial government had been reached, and so announced classes were back on.
While classes began on time today, there was some cleaning to be done as custodians had begun a work-to-rule campaign on Monday Sept. 30. They resumed regular duties today, which include "core services" that were previously withdrawn during their work-to-rule campaign.
Because some areas of the schools needed a little extra attention, all facility rentals have been cancelled until at least Thursday of this week.
“Basically, all of last week the custodians were there, but there were quite a few of their core functions that weren’t dealt with,” board spokesperson Pauline Stevenson said. “Emptying garbages outside of schools, dealing with the recycling and cleaning the hallways and gyms were not done.
“We have to get those areas cleaned thoroughly before we can allow outside organizations to use them, and that will take at least a few days," she added.
All 50 of the Catholic board's schools in the region were open for classes Monday morning, which Stevenson says was met with the mixed reviews between young and old.
“Parents and some students have different feelings on classes being up and running, as you might expect,” she said. “Parents are relieved, while many kids online were clearly hoping for an extended weekend.”
Joe Timmins, the principal St. Joseph's Catholic High School on Cundles Road East in Barrie, told BarrieToday staff were excited to be in class for first bell today.
“That’s why we’re here. We don’t want to not be teaching,” he said. “The point and purpose of the education system is to be together as a community and be here for the kids. Despite the late-night announcement, attendance looks good here today.”
Some students, however, took matters into their own hands with hopes the school's doors would remain closed by leaving behind a big mess on Friday.
“There was an energy in the education system around this (negotiation) process and let’s just say some kids acted out in their own form of social justice,” Timmins said. “We didn't have any major vandalism, but we did have a couple of incidents we did have to deal with involving some kids.”
Stevenson says she hopes contracts for workers in other areas of the board can also be negotiated in the coming months.
“This was just one union group and there are more labour negotiations that have to happen in the next couple of months,” she said. “There hasn’t been as much tension in the past, it seems. The Liberal government was a little bit more inclined to try to get deals in place before it got to this point.
“We’ve had well over a decade of fairly consistent labour harmony.”
