MEDIA ADVISORY: “Ontario’s school boards are in severe crisis”: Survey of 12,000 CUPE education workers finds extreme underfunding and understaffing has caused widespread violence, burnout and lack of supports for students in in Eastern Ontario schools

Event Information

Begins: 24 March 2025
Location: Cornwall, ON

CORNWALL, ON –(COMMUNITYWIRE)– A recent survey of Ontario education workers including Educational Assistants, Early Childhood Educators, Child and Youth workers, custodians, maintenance and trades workers, and school secretaries represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and the Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU) shows that a severe crisis in underfunding has led to extreme understaffing, students’ needs going unmet, and increased violence in the Upper Canada District School Board, the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, the Conseil des écoles publiques de l’Est de l’Ontario, and the Conseil scolaire de district catholique de l’Est ontarien school boards. 

The CUPE-OSBCU survey points to a crisis of understaffing in all classifications, causing insufficient supports for students and staff in schools and the broader Eastern Ontario community. School offices are overburdened by increasing demands, school cleaning suffers, and repairs are delayed or go undone. Many education workers at the three school boards say they face violent incidents on a daily basis. 

Read the full CUPE-OSBCU Services Survey report for the Cornwall area.

The OSBCU represents more than 57,000 education workers across the province. On Monday, OSBCU President Joe Tigani and Eastern Ontario CUPE education local presidents, as well as rank and file education workers, will share their experiences working in a crumbling education system and the horrendous survey findings.     

WHO:
Joe Tigani, President of CUPE’s Ontario School Board Council of Unions (OSBCU);
Trudy Scott, President of CUPE 4154; Erin Hurford, President of CUPE 5678;
Lisa Seed, an education worker with Upper Canada District School Board

WHAT:
CUPE-OSBCU Press Conference to present Eastern Ontario OSBCU Services Survey findings   

WHERE:        
Cornwall Area CUPE Office, 231 McConnell Avenue, Cornwall 

WHEN:
Monday, March 24, 2025, 11 a.m. 

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For more information, contact:

Shannon Carranco, CUPE Communications
scarranco@cupe.ca
514-703-8358