Before I get to the topic of this note I want to reassure you that, despite any alarmist statements that you might have heard to the contrary, school will start as usual right after Labour Day.<\/p>\n
URGENT ACTION NEEDED<\/p>\n
Proposed Legislation & Regulations Will be Bad for Students<\/strong> Today I am writing to you as a parent as well as a Trustee, and I am asking for your help<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The proposed legislation to restrain teacher salaries and reduce their benefits, also includes a clause that has nothing to do with the budget, but which will be bad for students. In brief, this clause is intended to force Boards to:<\/p>\n There is a broad agreement among Trustees and senior educators that these changes will hurt the quality of our children\u2019s education. But the media coverage and the political comment of this legislation has focused on the money and largely ignored this \u201cminor\u201d clause that will have major impact on student achievement and wellbeing.<\/p>\n Please take a few minutes to understand the proposed changes. I\u2019m confident that you will share the concern that I feel, a concern that is shared by Trustees and senior educators across Ontario. The legislation is being introduced on Monday.<\/p>\n Your action is urgently needed to convince Premier McGuinty and Minister Broten to change their plans.<\/p>\n The new regulations would force Boards to assign supply teachers based solely on seniority, regardless of the quality of the teacher or the understanding that the teacher has about the students in the class. This includes teachers who are filling in for a teacher on maternity leave, often for more than half the school year.<\/p>\n Currently, Principals can identify a group of excellent supply teachers and call on them as needed throughout the year. This allows the supply teachers to get to know the school culture, and often individual students.<\/p>\n In an attempt to explain the reason for this proposed move to seniority over ability, the government is trying to falsely label the current process as \u201cfavouritism<\/em>\u201d and \u201cnon-transparent<\/em>\u201d. Well, if wanting to assign the best available teacher is \u201cfavouritism<\/em>\u201d, and if trusting the judgment of a Principal over blindly picking the next name on the seniority list is \u201cnon-transparent\u201d, then I declare myself whole-heartedly in support of \u201cfavouritism and non-transparency\u201d.<\/p>\n Stepping into the shoes of a regular classroom teacher is never easy. Choosing someone to do this through the luck-of-the-draw, is clearly bad for students.<\/p>\n You may remember that there was a near universal outcry when the Federal government announced the end of the mandatory long-form census two years ago. Medical practioners, business leaders, scientists, newspaper editorials, urban planners, the United Way, and others warned that this would hurt the economy, public health and safety, and our collective ability to direct resources where they would do the greatest good for society and for individuals in need.<\/p>\n This seemingly minor change in process destroyed the long-term consistency of data that lay at the heart of its value.<\/p>\n In a similar way, schools and school boards rely on consistent in-depth assessment tools to track the progress of each student. (Note that these assessment diagnostics for student supports are completely different than the EQAO tests which the Ministry demands every Board and teacher does). As with the census, much of the value comes from using the same assessment tool over several years (and several teachers). This consistency builds a meaningful portrait of the \u201cstudent as learner\u201d \u2014 a portrait that is clear enough to allow for effective targeted intervention.<\/p>\n But if a student is evaluated with a different assessment tool each year, the portrait becomes damaged, fuzzy, smeared, and of little use in figuring out how to help the student. The new data doesn\u2019t align with the old data; the assessments use different techniques that are at odds with each other.<\/p>\n Identifying the exact challenges facing struggling students is never easy. Doing it without consistent and reliable data makes it harder and that is clearly bad for students.<\/p>\n For some inexplicable reason Minister Broten has included these provisions about student supports in unrelated legislation meant to address the deficit. These budget-related measures to impose restraint on teacher wages and reduce their sick benefits are getting all the press. There is a danger that the changes that will be bad for students will slip by unnoticed in the heated adult-oriented discussion about salary and benefits<\/p>\n I ask you for the moment to put aside the high-profile and important issues of taxation and deficits, salaries and sick days, and how collective agreements should be negotiated.<\/p>\n I ask you to help me focus the discussion those proposals that work against helping students thrive and learn.<\/strong><\/p>\n Ironically, the Minister has called her legislation the \u201cPutting Students First\u201d act. In my opinion, and the opinion of the Ontario Public School Boards Association and others, this legislation puts student anywhere but first.<\/p>\n We need your help as citizens and voters (and parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles) to get Minister Broten\u2019s attention and have her abandon this misconceived plan.<\/strong><\/p>\n We\u2019ll need to work together if we are to prevent these changes from hurting our students and schools. I hope that you\u2019ll join in. We don\u2019t have much time.<\/p>\n (I\u2019ve included some useful links below that will give you more information on the danger of the changes being proposed by Premier McGuinty and Minister Broten.)<\/p>\n MPP Directory<\/a> \u2013 The list of MPP\u2019s including contact information for both their constituency and Queen\u2019s Park offices. And to make it even easier to call, visit, or email your MPP, here is the information for the three local MPPs, as well as Minister Broten and Premier McGuinty:<\/p>\n Mike Colle<\/a> (Eglinton-Lawrence) Kathleen Wynne<\/a> (Don Valley West) Minister Municipal Affairs, Aboriginal Affairs, Housing Eric Hoskins<\/a> (St Paul\u2019s) Minister Children & Youth Services Laurel Broten<\/a> (Etobicoke Lakeshore) Minister of Education Dalton McGuinty<\/a> (Ottawa South) Premier OPSBA.org<\/a> \u2013 The Ontario Public School Boards Association members include every English public school board in Ontario, and take the lead on issues that concern all member boards. OPSBA has joined with the Catholic, and French school board associations to strongly object to the Minister\u2019s intended legislation and regulation changes. www.PeopleForEducation.ca<\/a> \u2014 People for Education is an independent non-partisan think-tank\/watch-dog organization that is exclusively concerned with the k-12 sector in Ontario. They have recently posted analyses of \u201cThe Truth about the \u2018Crisis\u2019 in Education\u201d and Minister Broten\u2019s intended legislation. \u201cCatholic teacher deal could affect student achievement\u201d<\/a> \u2013 The Star Aug 8. \u2013 The seniority and assessment rule changes seem to have arisen from requests made by the Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association (OECTA) during their talks with Minister Broten. As a result, these and other provisions being promoted by the government are commonly being referred to as \u201cOECTA Deal<\/a>\u201d. Most of it deals with wages and benefits issues, but I am talking about the impact of Sections K and L (starting on page 10).<\/p>\n WhoIsInChargeOfTheSchoolhouse.com<\/a> \u2013 \u201cWho is in charge of the school house?\u201d is a very recent initiative launched by Greg Pietersma, Chair of the Upper Canada District School Board. Greg and his fellow Trustees are concerned about the encroachment by Queens\u2019s Park into areas that are the expertise and historical domain of locally elected School Boards. Letter from Minister Broten<\/a> to Each Trustee in Ontario \u2013 On the afternoon of Friday Aug 10, every Trustee in Ontario was sent a \u201cpersonalized\u201d email from Minister Broten. In retrospect, this unprecedented email seems to have been part of a deliberate campaign leading up to the introduction of the proposed legislation when the legislature resumes sitting on Aug 27. An article in the Star the next day caught the tone of the typical Trustee reaction to that letter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Catholic Boards Claim Minister Broten is \u201cBargaining in Bad Faith\u201d \u2013 Toronto Star Op Ed \u2013 Aug 16<\/a> \u2013 The leaders of the Ontario Catholic Trustees and Principals associations give their view of the \u201cOECTA deal\u201d that Minister Broten is promoting. In particular, they outline how with the OECTA deal, the government has ignored the input and interests of the Catholic Boards, and (perhaps illegally) usurped the Boards legal authority. Local students have ally in school board trustees \u2013 London Free Press Editorial \u2013 Aug 11<\/a> – This focuses on the situation in Catholic schools, triggered by the OECTA deal. The Free Press Editorial Board gives a very high level analysis of what is going on. In their opinion, Trustees are very clearly on the side of the students, and the government and OECTA aren\u2019t. There is one major difference between the Catholic and Public systems on this issue. The Catholic teachers union (OECTA) seems to be supporting the Province\u2019s approach. In contrast, the Public system unions (Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario and Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation) strongly object to the extra-legal \u201cnegotiations\u201d process being imposed by the Province.<\/p>\n \u201cPutting Students First\u201d Act<\/a> \u2013 For those of you who are interested in reading legal text, here is a draft of the proposed act and a \u201ccompendium\u201d<\/a> from the government which gives a commentary on the various sections of the legislation. These were released to the public on Aug 15, even though the Legislature wasn\u2019t sitting (it has been recalled for Aug 27 to deal with this bill.) The clause dealing with the seniority and assessment issues is 19.1(e).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before I get to the topic of this note I want to reassure you that, despite any alarmist statements that you might have heard to the contrary, school will start as usual right after Labour Day. URGENT ACTION NEEDED Proposed Legislation & Regulations Will be Bad for Students Legislation will be introduced Monday, August 27 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-awareness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1891"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1913,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1891\/revisions\/1913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/allenbyparents.com\/blog2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nLegislation will be introduced Monday, August 27<\/p>\n\n
\n
The Problem in a Nutshell #1: Seniority vs. Ability<\/h2>\n
The Problem in a Nutshell #2: Opting out of student assessment tools<\/h2>\n
Problem in a Nutshell #3: Mixing Apples & Oranges<\/h2>\n
The Conclusion in a Nutshell: Our Students Need Your Help<\/h2>\n
What I\u2019m Asking You to Do<\/h2>\n
\n
Links that you might find useful<\/h2>\n
\nConstituency: 2882 Dufferin St, 416.781.2395 \/ Queen\u2019s Park: 416.314.6467<\/p>\n
\nConstituency: 795 Eglinton Ave E #101, 416.425.6777 \/ Queen\u2019s Park: 416.585.7000<\/p>\n
\nConstituency: 803 St. Clair Ave W, 416.656.0943 \/ Queen\u2019s Park: 416.212-7432<\/p>\n
\nConstituency: 701 Evans Ave #100, 416.259-2249 \/ Queen\u2019s Park: 416.325.2600<\/p>\n
\nQueen\u2019s Park: 416.325.1941<\/p>\n
\n\u201cLegislation does not put students first\u201d<\/a> Media Release was jointly issued Aug 16 by OPSBA and the associations representing Catholic and French boards, and outlines several serious problems with the proposed legislation.
\nOPSBA is an authoritative source for the latest developments involving Ontario\u2019s k-12 schools, including the Minister\u2019s plans to impose seniority and assessment diagnostic rules.<\/p>\n
\nP4E (as it is often called) is a useful source for analysis on developments and long-term trends in Ontario schools.<\/p>\n
\nWICOTSH<\/strong> (as I\u2019ve taken to refer to it in print) is the only place that I know that is asking you to voice your thoughts on whether students would be better off with school operations being directed out of Queen\u2019s Park rather than local Boards.<\/p>\n
\nThis Op-Ed gives a fairly concise explanation of how collective bargaining is supposed to take place in Ontario\u2019s Education sector.<\/p>\n