Field trips appear to be off the table for the beginning of the 2015-16 school year for Upper Grand District School Board (UGDSB) elementary students.
Local teachers will be among 76,000 elementary educators across the province returning to the classroom on Sept. 8 under increased work-to-rule strike action.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) announced on Aug. 20 the union will begin “phase two” strike action on the first day of school, a full year after teachers’ contracts expired.
In addition to not organizing field trips, phase two work-to-rule action will include the refusal to:
– participate in fundraising activities;
– act as teacher designate or teacher-in-charge at any time;
– respond to any electronic communication from the principal or vice-principal outside the school day (except for safety issues);
– collect/distribute paperwork required by the school or board; or
– attend “meet the teacher” events outside school hours.
The new job action is in addition to the work-to-rule steps started in May, including a refusal to complete standardized tests, attend professional development sessions, prepare report cards, complete grade-to-grade transition meetings or reports, and take part in certain professional activity days.
“Our teachers want a fair agreement and they want it sooner rather than later,” Upper Grand ETFO president Gundi Barbour told the Advertiser.
She explained the union began strike actions in May to “pressure” the government and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) to “engage in meaningful bargaining and there’s now an opportunity for that meaningful bargaining to take place on Sept. 1.”
Both sides plan to return to the bargaining table on Tuesday.
“We hope that the government and OPSBA will take advantage of that … session,” said Barbour, adding the union’s increased work-to-rule action “supplies some pressure to perhaps do that.”
In an emailed statement Minister of Education Liz Sandals said, “Our government is focused on starting the school year without disruptions and with full programming available to Ontario students.
“We are currently either engaged in bargaining or have dates to bargain with the teacher federations, and remain committed to keeping the details of the discussion at the bargaining table while utilizing the remaining weeks of summer to engage in productive negotiations to reach agreements.”
Barbour told the Advertiser she didn’t know what previously stalled talks at the central bargaining table.
“The talks happen in … a cone of silence, we do respect the bargaining process (and) we don’t really know the exact nature of where they are in that bargaining process,” she said. “Both … OPSBA and the unions have not shared that information.”
However, Barbour did identify two areas that were important to teachers in the bargaining process: class size and funding for special needs students.
“If you’ve got … a large class … one teacher just cannot provide a good learning environment and see to all of the special needs of all of the students because let’s face it, all students come with some needs that they would otherwise be able to do if they had a smaller class,” Barbour explained.
“We want to have a fairly funded education system that serves students well.”
The biggest impact students will feel under the increased work-to-rule action is teachers’ refusal to plan and attend field trips.
“They’re not going to organize field trips but … for instance, if there are special needs students that have field trips, those will still go on,” Barbour said, adding there wouldn’t be any impact on special needs programs.
Although teachers will be participating in extra curricular activities, Barbour said she’s unsure of how to advise teachers regarding travel with the extra curricular group.
“That’s one that I have to iron out myself at this point,” she said. “Frankly, we’re hoping that by the time those teams are traveling we’re no longer in that situation.”
When asked specifically about work-to-rule action set to begin Sept. 8 as part of phase two, Barbour said, “We’re trying to use action … that will continue to allow our teachers to do what they do best and that’s teach students and our students and parents to get what they’re expecting which is education and a fulfilling meaningful education.”
She added, “Our argument is not with the parents and the teachers, our argument is with OPSBA, the Ontario Public School Board Association, and the Wynne government by extension.”
When it comes to parent-teacher communication, Barbour said, “There are no restrictions on parent communication now, but we always advise our members it’s best to be communicating during the school day.”
She told the Advertiser teachers’ refusal to attend “meet the teacher” events outside school hours does not apply to one-on-one meetings with parents.
“My understanding is one-on-one meetings with parents that would normally have been happening, for instance, if a student has special needs or a parent has specific concerns about a student’s progress in the classroom, those meetings at this point are not affected,” she said.
“‘Meet-the-teacher’ is a little different … parents come in, teachers are there … it becomes almost like a little field trip for the parents to see the teacher so that’s a little different event.”
Parents wanting to have a discussion with their child’s teacher will have to contact the teacher to set up a meeting time.
Barbour explained the refusal to collect/distribute paperwork required by the school or board applies to forms that are sent home at the beginning of the school year to gather board information.
“It has no impact at all on students,” she said. “They don’t care who they get the form from or if they get the form.” She added principals will now decide how to best distribute the forms.
The local ETFO is also bargaining with the UGDSB, but some aspects of those negotiations depend on what happens at the central table, so local negotiation dates have been set for later this fall, Barbour said.
