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City of Windsor to offer more day camp spaces Friday in lieu of job action at schools

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The City of Windsor is offering up extra day camp spaces at a number of local community centres in anticipation of school closures related to the education workers job action planned Friday.

“If parents are in a bind Friday morning and they can't send their kids to school for whatever reason, the City of Windsor will make available three day camps across the city,” said Ray Mensour, the city’s commissioner of community services.

Between 30 and 100 spaces will be available at Capri Pizzeria Recreation Complex, the Forest Glade Community Centre and Optimist Community Centre.

“Parents will be able to drop off their kids there as early as 7:30 a.m. and pick them up as late as 5:30 p.m.,” says Mensour, who indicates the price for the day will be $31.

Parents can book in advance by visiting ActiveWindsor.ca but can also show up in the morning and register on site without booking in advance.

CUPE members will be in a legal strike position as of Friday, Nov. 4.

Three of the four big school boards in the area will pivot to online learning at least for the day.

“We’re holding out hope, quite frankly, that there still may be some reason to believe this could be averted,” Steve Fields, spokesperson for the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board (WECDSB) said Wednesday.

Until then, WECDSB has decided to close schools and move students to online, asynchronous learning.

“The teachers will be posting the students work online (and) there’s an expectation that students will check-in and do the assignments but there won’t be a teacher doing instruction virtually like we were accustomed to during the pandemic,” said Fields.

The Greater Essex County District School Board (GECDSB) on the other hand, will keep schools open on Friday.

“Those who are closest to working with students during instructional time are not part of the CUPE union and therefore we believe we will be able to stay open,” said Erin Kelly, GECDSB director of education.

Should there be future job action at local school boards, Mensour says the city is tracking the situation and will plan accordingly.

“It's certainly our intention to keep tracking how things evolve with negotiations and to offer the service as often as we can,” says Mensour. “Obviously, things are dependent on you know, staffing, planning and all the resources required to offer these services, but it's certainly our intention to be able to offer the services as often as possible.”

With files from CTV’s Michelle Maluske

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