Ontario’s public elementary school teachers will stop supervising extracurricular activities next week.

The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) announced Thursday (Oct. 22) the union would be escalating its current job action, which so far has been a work-to-rule that has teachers refusing to do a myriad of administrative duties as well as volunteer to coordinate activities such as student field trips, hold parent meetings and supervise extracurriculars on Wednesdays.

But next Wednesday, in an attempt to force the provincial government and Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) back to contract negotiations, teachers will withdraw from all voluntary extracurricular activities without any indication about when supervision would resume.

Without teacher supervision, school clubs and sports teams would essentially end for thousands of students in Ontario public elementary schools – including those at the Peel District School Board.

“The Liberal government and OPSBA have ignored all attempts by ETFO to get them to return to the central bargaining table, including an offer to refer one issue to binding arbitration,” ETFO President Sam Hammond said in written statement.

Hammond added the action is not being taken lightly and questioned the government’s and OPSBA’s commitment to reaching a deal.

The last contract expired at the end of August 2014.

“All I can say is the mediator has been engaged in trying to figure out a return to the table ever since Thanksgiving weekend,” Education Minister Liz Sandals said Wednesday (Oct. 21) when asked about a possible return to talks.