Media Advisory: Frontline Education Workers to Rally Before Hastings and Prince Edward School Board Budget Meeting

BELLEVILLE, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Frontline education workers and concerned community members will rally outside of the Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board (HPEDSB) meeting on Monday evening, calling on trustees to pass a no-cuts budget.

WHAT:	Rally to stop school cuts at school board budget meeting.
WHO:	100 education workers and community members.
WHEN:	Monday, June 20, 2022 - 6:00 p.m.
WHERE:	Hastings & Prince Edward District School Board office
	156 Ann St, Belleville, ON K8N 3L3.

Laura Walton, an educational assistant from HPEDSB who is president of CUPE’s 55,000-member strong Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU), will speak at the rally.

Despite rising enrollment and this school board’s own projection that funding will increase for the 2022-2023 school year starting in September, trustees have announced plans to cut 11 frontline education workers including custodians, maintenance workers, and secretaries.

“There is an increase in all of the major government grants that fund frontline education workers’ positions here,” said Jo-Anne White, president of CUPE Local 1022. “We’ve done our part, now it’s time for trustees to do theirs. Trustees must reject any proposed cuts in their budget tonight.”

“The lowest-paid education workers are on the chopping block and they shouldn’t be,” said Walton. “These are people who have worked on the frontlines throughout the pandemic, they’re the backbone of every community’s schools. No one voted for more cuts and it’s time for Hastings and Prince Edward trustees to pass a no-cuts budget.”

The Ontario School Boards Council of Unions (OSBCU) unites 55,000 members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) who work in the public, Catholic, English, and French school systems throughout Canada’s largest province. OSBCU members are educational assistants, school library workers, administrative assistants, custodians and tradespeople, early childhood educators, child and youth workers, instructors, nutrition service workers, audio-visual technologists, school safety monitors, and social workers.

CUPE Local 1022 represents 700 Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board custodians, school secretaries, computer technicians and technologists, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, heating ventilation and air conditioning workers, student supervision monitors, educational assistants, designated early childhood educators, communications disorders assistants, library technicians, and education centre staff.

KM/kk:cope491