Families,

As I shared with you on Tuesday, the union that represents some of our school support staff will be in a legal position to strike effective Friday, April 21, 2023.

We remain hopeful there will be a resolution before this deadline.

In the meantime, we continue to work closely with school principals to determine how to best support students in the event of a labour disruption.

As a reminder, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) is in negotiations with all Regional Centres for Education in the province, as well as the Conseil scolaire acadien provincial (CSAP). The employee groups that CUPE represents varies throughout the province, therefore the impacts will be different for each region.

In the event of a CUPE strike, I want to assure you that the following services will continue in HRCE:

• All schools will remain open to in-person learning.
   
• Student transportation will operate as usual. Special needs transportation will operate as usual for students who can reasonably and safely attend school without EPA support for the duration of a strike.
   
• The EXCEL program will continue to operate.

In the event of a CUPE strike, the following services will be disrupted in HRCE:

• Educational Program Assistants (EPAs) will not be at work. Principals will be reaching out to families who will be impacted to discuss how students who require the support of EPAs will continue to access educational services reasonably and safely. Our Regional Student Services staff, school teams, the IWK Student Health Partnership Nurses and the IWK School Therapy Team are currently reviewing student needs.
   
• Pre-Primary Programs will be paused for the duration of a strike, as Early Childhood Educators (Leads and Supports) will not be at work. Pre-Primary children will not attend school.

• Services from the following employees will be paused for the duration of a strike: Library Support Specialists, SchoolsPlus Community Outreach Workers, Child and Youth Care Practitioners, Mi’kmaw/Indigenous Student Support Workers, African Nova Scotian Student Support Workers, and Assistive Technology Support Workers.

Again, we are hopeful there will soon be a resolution and our plans won’t be necessary. I recognize that a work stoppage by CUPE employees will create some disruption for students and families. Our goal is to minimize the impact as best we can.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to your school principal.

All the Best,

Steve Gallagher
Regional Executive Director
Halifax Regional Centre for Education