Teachers hit picket lines at Waterloo region's public elementary schools Monday

Elementary teachers and educational assistants are on strike Monday and schools are closed as the union that represents them and the province continue to be at a standstill over a new contract.

This is the second week Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario (ETFO) will hold one-day rotating strikes.

Greg Weiler, president of the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario Waterloo Region, says teachers, occasional teachers and early childhood educators will be off the job Monday.

"It's unfortunate that things have reached this stage, but we have not had a bargaining date since Dec. 19 and we really need the government to come back to the table and to come back prepared to discuss the substantive issues that are affecting elementary schools in the province," Weiler said.

This is the first time the ETFO strike has impacted Waterloo region. Past school closures have been when Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) workers have gone on one-day strikes. For the Waterloo Region District School Board, OSSTF represents high school teachers as well as other education workers including secretaries, custodial and maintenance staff.

All secondary schools are open and exams will continue as scheduled.

Before and after school programs run by the school board will be closed.

EarlyON and licensed child care centres in schools will be open, though, as will before and after school programs operated by those licensed child care providers.

There is a full list of programs that will be open on the board's website.

Board hopes for 'swift resolution'

Waterloo Region District School Board chairperson Jayne Herring issued a statement Friday afternoon saying the past few months "have proven challenging for all of us."

The board "believes that education spending should be a priority and necessary investment for the future success of our province," Herring said.

"Our teachers and educational workers are an integral part of this success as they influence a positive and productive learning environment for our students," she added. "We will continue to advocate and work with all of our partners and hope for a swift resolution."

Bargaining can be 'challenging and difficult'

Weiler says teachers and educational workers don't want to strike, but they don't feel like the provincial government is listening to their concerns.

"In the past, there's always been an understanding that when we go into bargaining it can be a challenging and difficult process," he said.

"What we're seeing with what's happening to all the teachers affiliates in the province and this government is a government that has not come to the bargaining table from the beginning prepared to have meaningful discussions."

Instead, he says, the government imposed changes through legislation before bargaining and then asked teachers and the unions to accept those changes without any discussion.

Weiler has been an educator for more than 20 years and he says he hasn't seen "anything quite like this."

"Even going through the tail end of the [former Premier MIke] Harris years, where I certainly think there was a similar ideological approach from the government of the day, we have never seen what's happening now to this extent," he said.

Elementary teachers in the Upper Grand District School Board, which serves Guelph and Wellington County, will be on strike Tuesday.