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 Peterborough-area schools

Event Information

Begins: 24 February 2025
Location: Peterborough, ON

PETERBOROUGH, 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 Kawartha Pine Ridge, Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic and Trillium Lakelands district 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 Peterborough area and surrounding communities. 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 Peterborough-area. 

This school year alone, the Kawartha Pine Ridge DSB has faced a minimum of a $40 million cut by the Conservative government to real per-pupil funding, the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland Clarington Catholic DSB has faced a real per-pupil cut of $16 million, and Trillium Lakelands DSB has lost over $19 million.   

The OSBCU represents more than 57,000 education workers across the province. On Monday, OSBCU President Joe Tigani and Peterborough area CUPE local presidents, as well as a rank and file Educational Assistant, Registered Early Childhood Educator and a custodian, 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);
Nora Shaughnessy, President of CUPE 1453;
Amanda Willett, Registered Early Childhood Educator at PVNCCDSB;
Laurie Lucciola, Custodian at KPRDB and member of CUPE 5555;
Bill Campbell, President of CUPE 997; and
Sandy Dunham, Educational Assistant at TLDSB 

WHAT:
CUPE-OSBCU Press Conference to present Peterborough-area OSBCU Services Survey findings   

WHERE:
CUPE Peterborough Office, 6-165 Sherbrooke Street, Peterborough   

WHEN:
Monday, February 24, 2025, 10 a.m. 

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For more information, contact:

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