Voices

March marks a full year since the COVID-19 pandemic began, a year that has been incredibly stressful and difficult, especially for those who work on the front lines.

The middle of March marks one year since the COVID-19 pandemic began. For Voice, it is a year that started by connecting the pandemic to both systemic equity issues and climate justice and one that ends by revisiting these questions with this spring issue.

March 21 is the one-year anniversary of the ETFO tentative agreement. On that date, the final strike pay cheques will be issued to any members who are still missing strike pay.

This year has been like no other and I want to thank you for your incredible work in the classroom, whether in-person or virtual.

Throughout the past several months, ETFO members have shown incredible resilience, professionalism and caring, working to provide excellent public education to students across the province under very difficult circumstances.

There is no doubt that this teaching year is unlike any other we have had, with educators both adapting to teaching in a pandemic and advocating for public schools and students.

As elementary educators in Ontario you have embarked on an unprecedented year, returning to your classrooms after a historic shutdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the beginning of the school year quickly approaching as I write this in the first days of September, ETFO is ever more mindful of how important it is to get school reopening right and to ensure health and safety of both educators and students.

With the fall issue of Voice, we are focussed on the safe reopening of schools and the ways in which we build community, particularly in these challenging times when the inequities that are always present, are laid bare.