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www.insideHALTON.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Wednesday, January 16, 2013 · 4 Schools open but everyone scrambled By Dominik Kurek OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Friday morning was a scramble for parents, children, crossing guards, teachers, child care providers and school administrators to get to class after receiving last-minute news that Halton public elementary schools would be open after all. David Euale, education director for the Halton District School Board, also had a late night Thursday and an early start Friday, hoping to reopen schools for classes after a planned elementary teacher protest. While Euale was able to announce schools would be open, it came with very short notice and many didn't make it, some simply choosing not to. The Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) had planned a one-day political protest, until Premier Dalton McGuinty challenged the potential labour disruption in all of the province's elementary schools at an Ontario Labour Relations Board hearing. After nearly 13 hours of arguments between the Province and the teachers' union, at approximately 4 a.m. Friday, the labour board ruled dents," Euale said. In order to be able to provide such full-day programming, the daycare providers consolidated their staff from all their locations and placed them into only a few school centres. With schools reopened, Euale feared children would arrive for preschool programming at their usual schools with no staff there to meet them. It was too late to revert to regular daycare programming, so full-day programs continued as though schools had been closed. The daycare providers notified parents of these changes. Euale noted having these daycare services at some schools would create some accommodation issues, but such issues would be minor and adjustments could be made by school principals. "The issue, for me, was not whether a gym is not being able to be used by the rest of the school because the daycare is there. We can handle that for a day. My biggest fear was parents dropping kids off at school at 7:30 a.m. and the principal's not there and the daycare's not there and the parent not knowing where to go with their kid," he said. "It was difficult this morning to try to get everyone out. Some schools open at 8 a.m., so we only had a few minutes to get up. We tried to give the town the best service we could." Simon Tam, manager traffic operations, Town of Oakville David Euale the one-day protest would be illegal. Shortly after, ETFO president Sam Hammond directed his 76,000 members to comply with the decision and report to classes. Public school boards scrambled to reopen schools -- the Halton board being the last to confirm. The delay locally came as a result of the school board previously trying to add space for some of its children. "The one snag in all of this was that, based on our expectation that the protest would take place, we allowed our before- and after-school daycare providers, which are in a number of our schools, to provide full-day programming for our stu- Otherwise, classes functioned as normally as possible Friday. It was not a full house however as some parents made alternate arrangements for their children and chose to keep the arrangements -- some alternate programs began receiving children even before the announcement came that schools would be open after all. "We will function with the students that we get to the best of our abilities and I think our teachers will do their very best to provide a quality experience for kids today," Euale said. In addition, not all crossing guards were out Friday morning. The Town of Oakville, which employs crossing guards, got the word from the school board at 7:20 a.m. that schools would be open. Simon Tam, the Town's manager of traffic operations, said they tried to get as many crossing guards out as possible, given the short notice. "It was difficult this morning to try to get everyone out. Some schools open at 8 a.m., so we only had a few minutes to get up," he said. "We tried to give the town the best service we could." Tam said there were a number of empty crossing guard spots throughout Oakville. However, there were a number of crossing guards already out as the Halton Catholic District School Board was operating regularly and some road crossings are shared between the public and separate school boards. Tam said there would be more crossing guards out Friday afternoon -- and students, whose parents received word that schools were open, trickled in throughout the day. it all started when my baby stopped breathing... She was only three weeks old when Lexie suddenly stopped breathing in my arms. Within seconds, my beautiful, healthy baby turned blue and I was frantic. Once she was in the emergency department, the doctors and nurses took over and diagnosed Lexie with a respiratory virus. She was in the hospital for a week with monitors and oxygen devices helping her breathe, but today she is a healthy and proud big sister to her brother Liam thanks to the life-saving equipment in our hospital. Each and every year, our hospital needs hundreds of pieces of new equipment that will improve the lives of all of us here in Oakville. Every piece is critical and every piece needs to be funded by our community. It all starts here with your help. Please give generously. OakvilleHospitalFoundation.com Please call 905 338 4642 to make a difference by donating to the Oakville Hospital Foundation. Charitable Registration #: 13145-3490 RR0001 The Oakville Hospital Foundation is grateful for the generous support of our media sponsor, the Oakville Beaver. Lexie and Liam Evans in Erchless Park, Oakville Lemon Love Photography