OTTAWA – Ottawa English Catholic teachers traded it teaching for protesting today (Feb. 4) the first of three days that will close Ottawa area schools this week.

Today’s job action was part of a one-day, province-wide strike by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Associatio closing all Catholic elementary and secondary schools.

Rotating strikes by the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario will hit the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board Wednesday (Feb. 5), closing all English language public elementary schools in Ottawa. Those students will get the next day off as well, when a one-day province-wide strike by ETFO will close all public elementary schools in Ottawa.

Ottawa’s public high schools will remain open this week. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) has resumed its rotating job actions, none of its strikes this week will affect eastern Ontario.

Outside the city, public elementary students in the Upper Canada District School Board will be out of class on Wednesday and Thursday, due to a rotating and a province-wide one-day strike by ETFO members. In Renfrew County, all English public elementary and secondary schools will close on Thursday; ETFO represents some support staff in the Renfrew County District School Board’s secondary schools.

All of Ontario’s major teachers’ unions are involved in some form of job action as they try to work out a new contract with the provincial government.