The Holy Spirit Catholic School Division and Lethbridge School Division are providing updates to families in the event that a strike occurs on Oct. 6, 2025. (Photo: Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge schools preparing for possible strike, what parents & students need to know

Oct 3, 2025 | 9:13 AM

Teachers across Alberta could soon be hitting the picket lines, potentially shutting down thousands of schools.

If the Alberta Government and Alberta Teachers’ Association (ATA) cannot reach a new collective agreement by Monday, October 6, 2025, the ATA says its 51,000 educators will go on strike.

As of Oct. 2, the ATA said further talks had not been scheduled, but that they are willing to return to the bargaining table if the government is.

READ MORE: As strike looms, Alberta teachers say they’ll return to bargaining once province does

The Lethbridge School Division and Holy Spirit Catholic School Division have provided the following updates for what parents and students can expect in the event that a strike occurs.

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Lethbridge School Division

In the event of a strike

• All classes are cancelled
• Students would not attend in person or online
• There would be no instruction, supervision or extracurricular activities

Please do not send your child to school if there is a strike, and do not leave your child at a bus stop at the beginning of the day.

As Monday, Oct. 6 is fast approaching, the Division encourages parents/guardians/caregivers to ask your children to bring home any valuables and personal belongings.

For the duration of the job action, the Division will be deactivating TEAMS, along with the Lethbridge School Division Moodle. This decision was made after careful consideration due to concerns over student safety, security and privacy, along with a lack of teacher supervision of student use of these platforms. It should be noted, students will still have access to the suite of programs offered through Office 365, which includes their OneDrive, Microsoft Word and other Microsoft applications.

The Division has created a list of supplemental resources for learning, which can be utilized by students and parents. This list can be found on the Division website here: RESOURCES.

We understand there are questions about school-based fees. The Division is aware many families may have already paid for school-based activities and events such as field trips. Once we know the length of the labour disruption, we will address instances where fees need to be reimbursed to families due to activities or trips being cancelled or substantially diminished.

Please be aware, Indigenous Education bingo nights, which were scheduled to begin this evening, have been postponed until March. Please visit the Division website for details: INDIGENOUS EDUCATION.

Please continue to monitor the Division’s Labour Relations website for updates: LABOUR RELATIONS.

The Lethbridge School Division says it will update its website at 4:00 p.m. on Friday with the most current information.

Holy Spirit Catholic School Division

Starting Oct 6, 2025, if a job action happens, and for the duration of the event:

• All Holy Spirit schools (early learning through to Grade 12) will be closed to all students.
• All curricular and extracurricular activities will pause until classes resume.
• Please take home personal and perishable items on October 3, 2025.
• All in-person Dual Credit activities at Lethbridge Polytechnic and Olds College will be paused.
• RAP programs will continue as normal, they do not take place in the classroom but with their employer.
• This job action includes both Teachers and school Administrators (Principals and Associate Principals).
• Doors to schools will remain locked during the closure. If your child has forgotten items at school, please contact the school office for guidance on accessing them.

Further communication will continue from the Board Chair, Dr. Carmen Mombourquette, during this period. Updates will be posted here on this page, and families will be notified by email when new information is available. To help keep school phone lines open, we kindly ask families not to call schools regarding job action. The division will continue to share all updates directly with you.

To help keep school phone lines open for urgent matters, we kindly ask families not to call schools directly with questions about the job action or its impact on students. Instead, we are preparing an online form that will be accessible on this page, where you will be able to submit these questions, more information to follow October 3, 2025.

When the job action is resolved and school resumes, supporting students’ educational progress will be our top priority. Families are encouraged to reassure children that we look forward to welcoming them back to school as soon as possible.

Ms. Chantel Axani, Superintendent of Schools
Holy Spirit Catholic School Division

Support for Families

Financial Support

The Alberta Government announced on Sept. 30 that, if a strike were to occur, it would provide some families with financial assistance.

Parents and guardians of students aged 12 and under who attend a public, separate or francophone school will receive $30 per day per student for the duration of the strike. The first payment will be made on Oct. 31.

More information about the application process will be made available shortly, but families are asked to ensure they have set up an Alberta.ca verified account at alberta.ca/alberta-ca-account.

Learning Supports

Alberta Education and Childcare has created a free toolkit for parents to support their child’s learning in the event that schools are closed.

The toolkit provides resources that follow the K-12 curriculum, and are available in English and French. It focuses on the core subjects of language arts, social studies, math and sciences, and will be updated weekly.

You can access the learning toolkit here.

READ MORE: Province announces supports for parents and students through teacher strike