All Hamilton public schools to close Monday amid strike

All public schools in Hamilton will be closed Monday as members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) continue an Ontario-wide strike.

The Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB) announced the closures in a tweet just before 9 p.m. on Friday, saying their primary responsibility during the labour dispute is to maintain the health and safety of its students and staff.

We know this is a difficult time and we appreciate everyone's patience," the board said.

The board said students will begin independent learning at home Monday before moving to real-time, remote learning Tuesday.

Additionally, all before- and after-school programs, recreation programs, extracurricular activities and athletics in schools are cancelled until further notice, the board said.

The announcement come hours after the public board decided to keep its schools open Friday under a contingency plan - unlike the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board, who resorted to online lessons on Friday.

Today, we implemented a contingency plan where we assigned additional staff to schools," the public board said in a release. At the end of today, we reassessed the situation and as a result, we have determined that we are unable to continue to keep schools open safely for students."

Sebastian Bron is a reporter at The Spectator. sbron@thespec.com