BARRIE -- Teachers and education workers across the province hit the picket lines on Wednesday morning.
Hundreds of thousands of high school students hit the snooze button this morning.
All Simcoe County District School Board secondary schools and adult learning centres are closed today. The only exception is for grade 7 and 8 students at Elmvale District High School and Stayner Collegiate Institute, who reported to school as usual.
Simcoe County District School Board elementary schools remain open.
However, Catholic elementary and secondary Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board schools are closed to students on Wednesday.
This includes the cancellation of buses, field trips, the use of facility permits and before-and-aftercare programs.
The OSSTF also represents roughly 750 early childhood educators, educational assistants, and office and maintenance workers across Simcoe Muskoka.
Schools will reopen on Thursday, Dec. 5th.
The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) hopes the walkout will put pressure on the government to move forward with constructive proposals during the negotiation process.
Ontario's high school teachers have been without a contract since August.
The teachers are already conducting a work-to-rule campaign and say they are pushing back against government plans to increase class sizes and introduce mandatory e-learning courses.
Ontario's education minister said the main issue in the talks is compensation, with the government recently passing legislation to cap annual wage increases for all public sector workers at one percent for three years. The union is asking for inflationary increases, which would amount to about two percent.
For links to your school board's social media page for updates, see below.
Simcoe County District School Board
Simcoe Muskoka District Catholic School Board
Trillium Lakes District School Board
Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board
MonAvenir Catholic School Board
Bluewater District School Board
- With files from The Canadian Press
