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Ottawa parents react to news schools will reopen Tuesday

Families like the Underhills pivoted to remote learning Monday, but are relieved to know they will be returning to the classroom Tuesday. (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa) Families like the Underhills pivoted to remote learning Monday, but are relieved to know they will be returning to the classroom Tuesday. (Leah Larocque/CTV News Ottawa)
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Thousands of Ottawa parents are breathing a sigh of relief after news that schools will reopen Tuesday.

“I was excited to hear that it was going to be so soon," said Krystal Underhill, a mother of four.

Three of her four daughters had to pivot to remote learning Monday, because schools in the Ottawa Catholic School Board were closed.

CUPE said its workers would end their strike after Premier Doug Ford promised to repeal a law making it illegal for the workers to strike. The sides are returning to the bargaining table on Tuesday morning.

Underhill says the remote learning routine is one her children are used to, after a few years of doing it during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We made it work, but we are really glad they are going back," she said. "I kind of feel like we are going to be waiting on edge for this to just happen again, but I'm optimistic that at least they are going back as a sign of good faith, and hopefully they can all work it out and they can stay in school for the rest of the year."

Underhill says her children were also surprised to learn they would be returning to school so soon. Nine-year-old Kalliope Underhill is in Grade 4 ands says she's looking forward to going back.

“I am very excited because I get to see my friends and play with them,” she says.

The remote learning is a big adjustment for her five-year-old sister Kesslyn who says she had adjusted to the idea of learning close to her family.

“Today we are going online learning instead of in-person learning...I get to spend more time with my family.”

Kamryn Underhill misses seeing her friends in Grade 3. She is looking forward to once again “seeing my friends and recess time,

"If I am at home at recess time, I don’t get play with my friends.”

Schools in eight boards across the Ottawa area were closed on Friday and Monday due to the strike action.

Chandra Eadie made the decision to opt her 12-year-old daughter out of remote learning, because of the experience during the pandemic.

Eadie says she couldn’t contain her excitement when news came that schools would open, thinking the strike would last several weeks.

“My roommate came out and say – ‘is there a hockey game on or something?’” Eadie says. “That’s how loud my house was, I am so happy that my kid is going back to school!”

Eadie says the move by the government to withdraw back to work legislation “shows these children that you can’t buckle to a bully and don’t give into their demands because they say so.

"Going back to the negotiating table shows these kids how to effectively negotiate through problems.”

Despite the excitement of the development, some parents say there is still uncertainty.

Father Cole Jackson worries a return to the negotiating table doesn’t mean a deal is near, and a strike could happen again.

“The initial reaction would be, I am very excited. With a kindergarten student at home, there are a lot of challenges with trying to work at home with very little notice.”

But Jackson says many parents have questions about what this means while negotiations continue.

“It is a bit of a mix feel because the compromise was to end the strike, but now educational workers still don’t have a deal, so this gives us a lack of certainty in the future as well… it is bit of a bittersweet victory. We are just going to hope for more certainty moving forward.”

He says many parents didn’t have time to properly prepare for a strike and many weren’t given the proper equipment to learn at home. 

“We had to use our own personal computer, which luckily for our own situation, wasn’t an issue. But there are families out there that we know that don’t have laptops and (the schools) didn’t have time to roll them out so that really speaks to the uncertainty that parents were facing with very little notice.”

Parents of some kids who depend on educational workers, like Krista Lalonde whose son Xavier has special needs, are concerned this is a short-term solution.

“I think it is going to be short-lived,” says Krista. “I think families are going to lose out in the end, and maybe in two weeks’ time they realize Doug Ford is not going to help us, so let’s just go on legal strike action.

"We will all have our kids at home, parents not able to work, and we will be sitting here wondering how we are going to help our kids? Like mine who has special needs, how are we going to help him regulate, when he has no access to his peers or support staff?”

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