Rainbow School

By Angela Gemmill

It was back to class today for 70,000 high school students at three boards in Ontario, including 5,000 at the Rainbow District School Board in Sudbury.

The students have been away from school while their teachers were on strike.

That changed yesterday when the Ontario Labour Relations Board ruled the job action was illegal.

The three school boards in Sudbury, Durham and Peel Regions, quickly announced their schools would reopen today.

Chair of Rainbow School Board, Doreen Dewar, says she’s pleased with the final ruling and that students will be back in the classroom.

She says despite the difficult, two-tiered process (local & central) for bargaining, the three affected boards felt local strikes should be over local issues, not those being negotiated at central bargaining, for the entire province.

Dewar says the board is still trying to figure out how to condense the school curriculum since there are only a few weeks left of school.

She says that plan will involve prioritizing and maximizing the time that is left.

Dewar feels the teachers in the Rainbow Board are all professional and won’t let their labour unrest affect the atmosphere within the high schools.

She says the board spent yesterday afternoon making sure schools were ready to welcome students back.

In the meantime, back-to-work legislation is being debated at Queen’s Park, which the Liberals plan to use their majority to pass, ensuring strikes would not occur for the rest of the year.