Public elementary school teachers have ratified a collective agreement with the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association (OPSBA) and the government.
On Nov. 13, the agreement was endorsed by 86% of Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO)members who voted and 98% of the locals units.
“We feel that we’ve ratified a central agreement that does make improvements to teacher working and student learning conditions,” said Upper Grand ETFO president Gundi Barbour.
As part of the collective agreement, elementary teachers will receive a 1% increase in salary next September and another 0.5% increase in February of 2017.
Another addition is teachers no longer have to follow board-determined assessments in certain situations.
“The right of teachers to use their professional judgment in assessment and evaluation of student’s learning is now part of the collective agreement,” Barbour explained.
Teachers can make judgments as to how they’re going to complete major assessments, for example to determine a student’s reading or math skills. In the previous agreement, teachers had to follow board protocol that may not have been appropriate for a particular student or situation.
“It now allows teachers to decide what works best with the way they teach and also with the way students are learning,” Barbour said.
Other collective agreement additions mean occasional teachers will be given classroom keys and teachers will receive additional health and safety training on a PA day.
Barbour said teachers are disappointed there was no change to the maximum number of students in kindergarten and Grade 4 to 8 classes and that there was no change to support provided to students with special needs.
Both issues are currently under review. The ETFO, OPSBA and government, “are going to develop recommendations on how to better support students,” Barbour explained.
They have committees that will develop recommendations for each of the issues.
“The last time we had committees like that they were effective because they brought forward some recommendations that are now part of our current agreement,” Barbour said. “So those things are going to get looked at, unfortunately they’re not going to be fixed right this minute.”
Barbour said a report should be available by the end of the current school year and the recommendations will be ready by the time the current agreement expires on Aug. 31, 2017.
Upper Grand ETFO bargaining with the school board is going well, Barbour said, and progress reports are scheduled to go out to students on Dec. 11.
