By: Kristin Rushowy Education Reporter, Published on Fri Sep 04 2015

Two down — but three still to go.

With tentative deals reached with the high school and Catholic teachers’ unions in recent weeks, a four-day bargaining blitz with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation wasn’t enough time to reach a deal before the long weekend. Talks will resume on Tuesday.

French teachers continue to bargain after Labour Day, as does the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents 55,000 school support staff.

While Education Minister Liz Sandals had said she wanted to reach agreements with all education unions before classes began so as not to disrupt the school year, elementary teachers and CUPE have planned work-to-rule campaigns to begin next week. Students, however, may not initially notice the job action, which for teachers is largely administrative — though includes no field trips or parent-teacher nights. CUPE workers will refuse unpaid overtime and only perform duties outlined in their contract.

“I am pleased we have reached central tentative agreements with Ontario’s Catholic teachers and English public high school teachers and that the tentative agreements are consistent with the government’s net-zero bargaining framework,” said a statement from Sandals issued Friday afternoon, referring to the fact the small salary increases provided in those deals are offset by savings elsewhere in the contracts.

“We continue to actively negotiate and have scheduled bargaining dates with all remaining teachers’ and education workers’ unions, including CUPE, in an effort to achieve central agreements and avoid disruption to the school year.”

CUPE, which represents custodians, educational assistants and early childhood educators, issued formal notice on Friday of the impending job action, which begins on Thursday, the third day of school.

Bargaining resumes on Thursday and Friday, with three more days starting Sept. 15.

“Obviously we had hoped that we might be able to get to go through the weekend after (Sept.11),” said Terri Preston, who heads the union’s bargaining committee. “But that doesn’t appear to be possible.”

CUPE workers are employed by all four systems — public, Catholic, French and French Catholic — and have threatened rotating strikes, and possibly full-out strikes.

The province’s French teacher union, represented by L’Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens, or AEFO, has no job action planned and will be back at the bargaining table Wednesday.

Sam Hammond, president of the elementary teachers’ union, had said the government and school boards would be in “for the fight of their lives” if they continued to push proposals about class size and prep time. However, the deals with the high school and Catholic teachers saw no changes to either.

 

PHASE #1 OF PLANNED JOB ACTION BEGINS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 10TH!

With all the news about us “threatening” job action and posts I have recently shared, time to give my 2 cents. I have been blessed to have had many jobs I have loved but nothing has fed my soul like my job as an E.A. If you haven’t been lucky enough to do it, I don’t know if I can adequately describe what it’s like. I am working with children who are viewed not only as different, but as less than by many other people.

I love the children I care for fiercely. I refuse to accept that their voice should not be heard. I refuse to accept that their emotions aren’t valuable. I refuse to accept that they do not have the ability to change others’ view of them. I will be their voice if they cannot find it yet. I will help them navigate to a place of safety where they are special, important, and loved, just because of who they are.

But if I am willing to do that every day for money that keeps me below the poverty line, I need to use that same voice to say I am also not less than. I do a job that is different than the teachers but just as valuable. It is time this government noticed and acknowledged that. I cannot help every child. I cannot change everything. But I will do my best to help this child, today, and trust that it will make a difference in their lives. It sure has made a difference in mine.

Sarena Gray,

Special Education Assistant

By Elaine Della-Mattia, Sault Star – Tuesday, September 1, 2015 8:38:06 EDT PM

Minister of Education Liz Sandals said she’s hoping that outstanding agreements with all teachers unions will result in a tentative agreement by the time students return to the classroom next week.

The ministry is currently continuing negotiations with French language board teachers and English public elementary teachers.

“I am quite confident that negotiating is the right approach and we will eventually get there,” Sandals said Tuesday while talking to reporters in Sault Ste. Marie. “I’ve said all along that we’ll keep working at the bargaining table and eventually that will work in mutually agreed tentative agreements and hopefully ratified agreements and that’s the way to approach it.”

Tentative agreements with the English Catholic boards and public secondary school teachers have been reached.

Details of the collective agreements will not be made public until the boards ratify the agreements.

Sandals said ongoing negotiations are also continuing with the two unionized groups which represent the majority of the 55,000 support staff that are employed by boards across the province.

The union, the majority represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees and work in all boards across the province, had requested a no-board report and could be in a legal strike position Sept. 8. (See story on Page 3)

The support workers have already threatened job action. Outstanding issues include workplace violence, job security and pay. They have not received a raise since 2011.

She would not comment on contingency plans that may be formulating if a tentative agreement is not reached with the support staff.

“We are focusing on the collective bargaining. We’ve shown we can get collective agreements and we are working to do that,” she said.

At the elementary school level, teachers will also be teaching a new sexual education curriculum which has come under fire by many parents.

Sandals said the curriculum needs to be up to date and address the health and safety students are dealing with.

“We know that sexting and internet safety are a whole new set of issues that weren’t on the radar the last time the curriculum was changed,” she said.

Sandals said the ministry has done its homework to develop the curriculum, consulted with experts and prepared proper materials for the new program.

Meanwhile, the province announced Tuesday that it is modernizing its student financial assistance program for the upcoming school year.

The changes were initially announced during the 2015 spring budget.

The changes are designed to give students more control over how much financial aid they withdraw, end the requirement for students to report their vehicle as an asset and exempt the first $3,000 in student assets from their financial aid assessment.

While OSAP falls under the universities and colleges ministry, Sandals said data shows that Liberal government programming has dramatically increased the participation rate for post-secondary education over the past decade “so we know the financial assistance we’re putting in place is working.”

Sandals said the Ontario Liberal government has focused on ensuring there is financing for lower income student families and has targeted students who don’t have family members who have attended post secondary schools.

Sault MPP David Orazietti said that the Liberal government has also restored grants to students, something that had been cut in 1994 and new restored until the Liberals took power.

I am an Educational Assistant. I work primarily with children with special needs.

Do I enjoy my work? Yes. I love it. Do I enjoy my work enough to justify continuing to do it while my hours get cut so I can no longer make ends meet? No. Not really. I love my house and family more.

I have been an EA for a number of years. I thought I had paid my dues when, last year, I had finally moved from a part-time position to full-time: finally, some financial and job security!! This lasted exactly one year before the government’s cuts took that away from me.

Perhaps they don’t understand what our job entails. This is not to minimize the role of any other school employees. We are a team. We work together for the children.

In my time as an EA, I have had more time off due to injuries received at work than from sickness and appointments combined. I don’t take time off unless absolutely necessary. However, I have had the following occur to me in my time:

– a broken nose (received from a head-butt)

– broken glasses (2 pairs)

– ripped clothing (many articles)

– punches to just about every inch of my body

– kicks to the knees, stomach, ankles and genitals

– a lashing with a laptop cable

– stabbed with a pencil

And these were almost exclusively from students that had IMPROVED while working with me.

Sadly, what hurts the most of all is the lack of respect we receive for doing our jobs. The lack of job security that tells me that this is MY job; I’ve earned it.

It’s not just EAs that are hurt by these cuts. It’s also the students.

The student that isn’t receiving the help he needs to succeed.

The student who is acting out because he is lacking guidance when he is overwhelmed.

Even more so, the student who gets hit, kicked, punched, thrown, etc. etc. by a student with a diagnosis that doesn’t have the support they need.

EAs are a hard working and dedicated group. We do this work because we want to help. We want to make a difference. We don’t do it for the money, which, if we are being honest isn’t exactly an exorbitant amount.

At this point, many EAs leave their job at a school only to go work at a second job just to be financially stable.

Would I like a raise? I certainly wouldn’t refuse one. Would I prefer job security and enough hours to support myself and my family? Most definitely.

Benjamin Rivard, E.A.

TORONTO, ON – Leaders of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), representing 55,000 education workers in Ontario’s schools, voted overwhelmingly on the weekend in favour of escalating job actions to begin the first week of school.

Close to 400 CUPE delegates from across the province gathered in Toronto on August 29^th to map out job action strategies for their first legal strike day of September 10^th. Beginning with work-to-rule, the plan will gradually increase to rotating strikes and eventually ramp up to a full-scale province-wide strike.

Designed to increase pressure on the provincial government to provide more bargaining days, the weekend’s job action meeting appears to have worked.  “We heard from the government last week and they are now offering us more bargaining days,” said Terri Preston, Chair of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Coordinating Committee.

“These additional days are a good sign,” said Preston. “We’ve only had three so far. Now we have seven more, beginning August 30^th and running till September 17^th. This is really overdue. Our members have been without a contract for a year. We need to continue putting pressure on the government. Our education workers deserve respect.”

CUPE Ontario’s provincial leaders from all sectors were fully behind the job action plan. “We have 250,000 members across the province, in all sectors, from social services, to municipal staff, to health sector personnel and the universities, and they’re backing the education workers all the way,” said Fred Hahn, President of CUPE Ontario. “Our members are in every community, living and working with education workers. We’re in this together, speaking with one voice. And it will be heard loud and clear.”

Education workers include educational assistants, office administrators, custodians, tradespeople, instructors, library technicians, early childhood educators, IT specialists, speech pathologists and many others. They help keep the schools safe, clean and well organized while providing extra support to ensure all students have the opportunity to reach their potential.

For more information, please contact:

Mario Emond, CUPE Communications, 613-237-9475

 

 

 

COPE491/EW

I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Well, stop and think for a moment of your child’s school as a village.  I’m going to tell you a story of a day in the life of a Special Education Assistant (EA).

It’s Monday and all 300 students are back to school.  I walk into my school and I’m greeted by many staff with a good morning.  I walk toward the bus bay as I get ready for my morning bus duty………..this is where it all begins…….

As each of the four buses arrive it is my responsibility to make sure all of the children get to their assigned play areas safely. As soon as all of the busses have arrived I move to the school yard to supervise the students.  As the bell rings all of the students line up and are led into the school by their teachers. During this time you may find some EAs waiting for cabs or parent drop offs or are walking with their special needs students to their classrooms.

Once in my classroom I prepare my student for a day of school work.  It’s O’Canada time and my student refuses to stand. The teacher directs the student to do so and he still refuses. The teacher looks to me for support. I speak quietly to the student and he complies. And so it begins…..

It’s time for religion…….my student only reads at a grade one level but the book in front of him is grade 4. Imagine the feeling he must be experiencing.  The student looks up at me then down at the book confused and then withdraws.  The teacher calls on students to read passages and my student panics and runs from the room.  The teacher is unable to leave due to having to teach 28 other students so I follow him and find him hiding in a corner by an exit door.  I sit down next to him and start to talk and listen. I learn that he is embarrassed that he can’t read at that level and won’t participate in class.  I suggest that he doesn’t need to read but can just sit and listen. He agrees to come back and sit and listen.

I report back to the teacher and she agrees not to call upon him to read. The teacher and I discuss other avenues in which we could better assist this student’s success.  We decide on a special computer software program that reads to the student so that he can better understand what is being read. Of course with this type of learning disability usually comes difficulty with writing. Many accommodations and modifications need to be done for this student’s learning to be successful and both the teacher and all support staff work together to make this happen.

This is only one case of many.  We as EAs support a variety of students with multiple disabilities. We are a voice for those who can’t speak, caregivers for those in wheelchairs, we feed those who can’t feed themselves, and we calm and teach strategies to those students who can’t do it for themselves.  We keep children safe, and we support those students who would otherwise have difficulty being included in a regular classroom due to aggressive behaviour.

You may ask yourself, I don’t have a child with special needs so why should I care? Well you should care because it is not just the children with special needs that we assist. We also support those on special education plans and other students on occasion. Have you ever had your child come home and say ‘Mom and Dad, Mrs. B or Mr. S helped me figure out that math question’ or ‘helped me solve a social issue’ or even just ‘took the time to talk with me’. As you can see, our role as support workers stretches and reaches further than the classroom.

We are caregivers, role models, educators, mentors, and sometimes a stabilizing force in the day to day lives of some of these children. We work together within the school community, with families and each other to bring a ray of hope and sunshine to our students.  Without us many students would have only a teacher in a room of over 30 students and would have difficulty getting the one on one care and support they need. We play an important role in the daily operations of not only the school but also the lives of our students. We do what we do, not for the money, but for the children we love to care and work for. We want them to be successful, happy, safe and comfortable in their surroundings and be able to function in all aspects of their lives. This is not a job but a love of what we do!

In supporting us you support all children and their well-being, education and happiness.  Let’s work together as a village and continue to help our children be the best they can be.

Lisa Grbich,  EA

Most of my days as an elementary school secretary are very rewarding. The best part of my day is making sure all of the children get what they need when they come to the office. Calling home when they do not feel well, giving them a Tooth Fairy Bag when they lose a tooth, a sticker for their helpfulness when they deliver the attendance sheets, putting on a band-aid for them when they cannot, and giving them a Kleenex to wipe their tears……hoping they leave the office smiling.

My day starts with a ringing phone……no time to even get my coat off. Parents and caregivers are calling in to report their children’s absence or asking what is going on in their child’s classroom.  Buses are arriving, some parents are dropping off children, coming into the office to notify me of appointment pick up times for their children that day. At the same time I have teachers and students entering the office asking for information before their day begins. The phone continues ringing as I try to get logged onto the computer to deal with the messages waiting for my attention. Finally the bell rings, announcements are being read.

I make my calls to all of the parents of the students that are away if they have not called in or sent a note. As I buzz people in the locked front door I keep track of the students that are arriving late. Now the school principal is dropping into the office for information or giving me tasks to do for the day. Once the attendance is done I start clearing up work on my desk. Some of it has been there for a few days because I could not get to it.  Break time. Oh no I have to get this done before I forget what I was doing. More paperwork will soon be added on top of it by the Principal or teachers. The intercom is ringing….oh no a child is sick, I have to call mom or dad to come pick up the little one. Now I can go for a break. I sit in the staff room, bell rings, break over. Back to the office. More paperwork on my desk, now I have to call in for staff members who are ill or have medical appointments. Back to work, no not yet, have to call the bus company to get busses for a school outing.  It’s lunch time. Parents are dropping off lunches, picking up students, returning students to school. Phone calls continue. Now I can go for lunch. Bell rings, back to the office.

The Principal has requested a cheque to pay a bill from the bus company. I log into the banking software and produce a cheque. Oh, now a few more cheques. Run to get them signed. Packages delivered by the courier are still sitting on the counter from the morning, along with the mail. I will get to it as soon as I type out this note to the parents. Note done, now I email it to the emailing list, hard copies to the parents who don’t have email. Break time. I just feel like I need to breathe. Trying to get through all of the paperwork on my desk. Almost the end of the day. Phone calls, parents wanting their children to know they are being picked up. Calling into the classrooms to tell them – ‘don’t get on the bus’. Announcing the arrival of busses by route number on the P.A. as they arrive. Children gone for the day…… oh no a child, a few children missed their bus. Calling parents to pick up their children.  Looking at all the work that I wanted to get done, promising to get it done tomorrow.

Mary Lou Pringle,

Elementary School Secretary at HSCDSB

Ontario’s 55,000 education workers in strike position September 8

Burlington Post – By Kathy Yanchus

In the shadow of the headline-grabbing provincial teacher negotiations, is a group of 55,000 Ontario school support staff that will be in a legal strike position Sept. 8.