By the time teachers arrived on the picket line Monday morning — bundled up in hats, mitts and multiple layers of clothing — parents had set a table with hot coffee, homemade muffins, hand warmers and blankets.

That was the scene outside Toronto’s Carleton Village Junior and Senior Sports and Wellness Academy, as bitter temperatures ushered in a week that will consist of massive labour disruptions across Ontario with teachers engaged in one-day strikes.

Rachel Huot, whose children are in Grades 3 and 6, spearheaded the initiative that attracted about 20 other parents, many with young children in tow.

“I’m working with many parents in Toronto and Ontario who feel really angry about what the government is doing and really committed to supporting teachers,” said Huot, who is part of the Ontario Parent Action Network, a grassroots movement of parents taking action in their school communities. “We feel like (teachers) are standing up for our kids and standing up for our education system.”

All four of Ontario’s teacher unions are in contract negotiations with Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives. They have all launched work-to rule campaigns and three have scheduled one-day strikes for this week. Key issues for the unions include protecting all-day kindergarten, ensuring they get fair compensation and their opposition to larger class size averages and mandatory online courses for high school students. But Minister of Education Stephen Lecce says the sticking point is salary, with the province offering a 1 per cent increase yearly — in keeping with recent legislation for public sector worker wage increases — while unions want about 2 per cent.

At Carleton Village school, located near St. Clair Avenue West and Old Weston Road, the parents appear unwavering in their support. On Sunday, they gathered to make signs, such as Education Isn’t Paper — Don’t Cut It, This Is Getting Ridiculous and I’ve Seen Smarter Cabinets at Ikea. And on Monday morning, they spent about an hour with teachers on the picket line— some before heading off to work — cheerfully waving signs as passersby in cars honked to show support.

Because about 20 teachers showed up for the morning picket shift, from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m., most of those gathered early on were parents and children. Among them was Sarah Donnelly, along with her son in senior kindergarten and another who will start school next year.

“We know the job action they’re taking today is to make sure that our children have the best education,” said Donnelly, a stay-at-home parent. “They deserve fair compensation, they deserve a living wage increase in a city that is very expensive — but they’re not just fighting for that ... Our children don’t need to be in larger classes than they already are. And they are fighting for support for special needs students.”

A few parents who live nearby opened their homes, providing teachers with a respite from the cold — it was -15 Celsius, but felt like -22 C with the wind chill — and a chance to use a washroom. Teachers also walked down the street to the Toronto Police Service’s 11 Division to use their facilities. That’s because striking teachers are not allowed on school property. Still, that didn’t prevent the principal and vice-principal from coming outside with an armful of blankets and hand warmers, and the office assistant from heating up the cinnamon rolls a teacher had brought in.

Logan Wilson, who lives around the corner, made muffins for the teachers and allowed them to use the washroom in her home.

“We’re all together in this,” explained Wilson, who has a daughter in kindergarten and a 1-year-old. “It seemed natural to offer that because I’m home anyways … If I trust them to look after my daughter all day long, why wouldn’t I let them come and use my bathroom?”

Parent Mia Macdonald, a realtor, rescheduled appointments for the evening so she could spend the day with her son, who is in Grade 2. She was also going to care for her son’s friend, whose parents couldn’t find child care.

“What the Ford government is doing has just gotten ridiculous,” she said. “We can’t sustain these cuts. The teachers are not asking the world. This isn’t really for them about the minor pay raise. It’s really about our kids’ future.”

Sipping on hot coffee, teacher Paul Grewal said parent support has been remarkable. He questioned the province’s move to reimburse parents financially — up to $60 per student for every day that schools are closed — to help pay for child care.

“Giving parents their own money to placate them for a walkout that they essentially caused really doesn’t make any sense to us,” said Grewal, who teaches French. He said he didn’t think parental support would wane if the labour dispute drags on, or intensifies, noting, “We have a lot of solidarity.”

“I can’t predict how things might look many weeks from now, but I hope it doesn’t go that far,” he said.

Parent Melanie Medeiros-Sims fully supports the teachers. That’s because she doesn’t want her two kids in elementary school to end up in high schools with large classes or have to take e-courses — the province wants to boost high school class averages to 25 and make it mandatory for those students take two online courses. That’s down from an earlier government proposal of class size averages of 28, and four mandatory e-courses.

Medeiros-Sims said her daughter in Grade 12 complains that classes are already so big it’s hard to get a teacher’s attention and that students in her high school were asked to drop classes, if they had enough credits, because other kids needed certain courses to graduate.

“If we don’t stand up to Lecce and Ford, then what’s going to happen to our education system?” she asked.

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Medeiros-Sims, who works part time with a real estate agent, had to take the day off to care for her kids. And she was caring for two other children, whose parents agreed to watch her kids in the event of another strike.

“It’s a good arrangement that we have, but if this does become (a full-blown strike) it is going to become quite difficult,” she said. Even so, she’ll continue to support the teachers, saying, “It’ll be hard, we will be scrambling ... We have a great community here and I know we will come together.”

The school was also visited by NDP Education Critic Marit Stiles, who noted that “parents and parent councils have really come together to speak up and stand up with education workers. And that solidarity is so important.”

Stiles said she understands the strike can be inconvenient for many parents who have to to find child care.

“People understand that there’s some inconvenience now, but the reason we’re doing it is so that down the road our kids get the supports they need.”