Hundreds of thousands of students across the GTA could be home from school Monday if the province is not able to reach a deal with education support workers.

The Toronto District School Board, the largest school board in the province, confirmed Thursday that in the event of a strike by CUPE education workers, all of its schools will be closed to all students.

"If this job action commences as scheduled, the board will close all schools for all students on Monday, October 7, 2019 and for the duration of the job action," the board said in a note to parents and guardians. "While we understand that this is a challenging time, parents will be required to make alternate arrangements for their children."

The board said that a strike would mean that some 18,000 workers – nearly half of the board's workforce – would not be at work, making it extremely challenging to keep schools running.

John Malloy, the TDSB's director of education, told CP24 that the board made its decision after spending a week looking at "every possible contingency to keep open."

"We have 18,000 CUPE staff who do a myriad of important services, from, special education assistants to lunchroom supervisors to our custodians to our office administrators to instructors and many many more," Malloy said. "We could not replicate all of that service and still ensure our students' safety."

After-school programs, permits and meetings and continuing education classes would also be cancelled, Malloy said.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board also said that all of its schools will be closed in the event of a CUPE workers strike on Monday.

York Region District School Board, the Peel Region District School Board and the The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board have also all said that they will shut down their schools in the event of a strike.

Union says multiple issues unresolved

The union representing public school support workers who are set to strike four days from now says there are several major issues outstanding as they head back to talks on Friday.

Laura Walton of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, who represents 55,000 custodians, ECEs and librarians in Ontario schools says issues remain on the topic of sick leave and more importantly to her, recent cuts to school board funding that resulted in hundreds of their members losing their jobs last month.

“The key point from minute we walked in, remains service security, we need to see the funding cuts reversed that were made in the spring, we need to see services maintained,” Walton told CP24. “We cannot have situations where libraries are closed and therefore not providing safe spaces for students.”

On Wednesday, CUPE announced its school support workers would go on strike Oct. 7 if a new deal is not reached before then.

On Monday, the union began job action with steps including custodians not sweeping school hallways.

Education Minister Stephen Lecce told CP24 that his side felt it got “so close” to reaching a deal last Sunday, and he cannot fathom why the union has escalated from a work to rule to a strike warning in a matter of days.

“I don’t know what has changed in 48 hours, it seems a bit unprecedented,” he said.

He repeated his suggestion that the union is eager to strike during a federal election campaign where the Trudeau Liberals have been eager to draw attention to the Ford administration’s cuts.

“What I do know is the day the strike takes place is the first day of the federal leaders’ debate,” he said.

He repeated that in his view the only issue left outstanding was making changes to workers’ sick leave arrangements, where they can take 11 days off at full pay and up to 120 additional days at 90 per cent pay.

Walton said that not only is sick leave not the only issue left to resolve, she said that Lecce is mischaracterizing its use.

“The vast majority are not even taking 11 days,” Walton said. “When folks are taking these days it’s because they have diagnoses, they are recovering from surgery.”

She said that the current sick leave arrangement was given to workers when the previous Liberal government imposed a contract on them that took away their ability to bank sick time and have it paid out.

Walton said the fact that boards were entertaining closures spoke to the value her members add to schools.

“School boards are making contingency plans to close on Monday, because they’re citing the value of our work in our schools, and without us being there to perform that work, school can’t continue.”

The two sides are scheduled to meet again on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Both Walton and Lecce said the sides are willing to work through the weekend to reach a deal.

“I will do whatever it takes to keep their child in the class on Monday,” Lecce said.

“My team will be there morning and night and throughout the weekend to try ensure not only that we will be able to go back to work on Monday but also a commitment from the government that we will be investing more in students,” Walton said.