GRAND ERIE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD OCCASIONAL TEACHER LOCAL WELCOMES YOU

BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO THE VLE

VIDEO LINKS TO BOARD INSTRUCTIONS FOR OT'S IN VLE

ACCESSING THE VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT

THE ACTIVITY FEED

CREATE A SECURE TEAMS MEETING TO POST IN ACTIVITY FEED

INSTRUCTIONS FOR ADDING AN OT TO A SHELL

IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR THE 2021-22 SCHOOL YEAR

Union Email and Important Dates

Regular EMAIL from your UNION

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LOCAL MEETING DATES

All of our meetings will be virtual until Public Health determines that it is safe for large indoor gatherings.  In addition we will be hosting Zoom Check-Ins throughout the school year.  

Zoom Check-In - January TBD
Zoom Check-In - March TBD
Spring Annual Meeting & Elections - May 16, 2022

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BOARD PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAYS

January 17/22 - Curriculum and Assessment - Report Cards
April 22/22 - Transformative Pedagogy for Deeper Learning
June 6/22 - Curriculum and Assessment - Report Cards
June 30/22 - Staff Professional Development

Board Holidays

December 20/21-January 3/22 - Winter Break
February 21/22 - Family Day
March 14-18/22 - Spring Break
April 15/22 & 18/22 - Good Friday/Easter Monday
May 23/22 - Victoria Day

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

In order to remain on the Roster, you must work a minimum of eight (8) FTE (full time equivalent) days between September 1 and January 31 of the school year.  This could also be a combination of half day assignments and full day assignments.  Each half day is equivalent to 0.5 FTE so if you are only available for half day assignments, you would be required to teach sixteen (16) to remain on the Roster.  In the second half of the school year, you must teach a minimum of seven (7) FTE days to remain on the Roster with an overall minimum of twenty (20) FTE days over the course of the school year.  Please keep these numbers in mind when you are making yourself unavailable.  Sometimes it is best to request a Leave of Absence in order to have your required number of days reduced.  

My second reminder is in regards to Inclement Weather.  You can view the Board's Inclement Weather Policy here.  If school is cancelled due to weather, Daily OT Assignments are cancelled.  The Board will also place a notification on their Homepage and I will send out an email as soon as I know of the closure(s).  Please note that the Board is divided into Zones and some Zones may remain open while others are closed.  If you are in an LTO, please ensure that you have an asynchronous day planned for your students during Inclement Weather Days.

My third reminder is to apply to any job posting that interests you.  I have seen numerous postings that have had no applicants.  Please apply if you have the qualifications required for the assignment.

Please also ensure that if you are unavailable to work for any reason, that you make yourself unavailable in ADS.  Administrators access ADS to find OTs when there are unfilled assignments within their schools.  By making yourself unavailable, you are assisting in mitigating the unfilled assignment issue which has become a grave concern in Grand Erie.  Last week we had sixty-four (64) assignments go unfilled in one day.  Let's do our best to ensure that schools can run efficiently by ensuring that our available status is up to date in ADS.  As an aside to this, the Posting for Itinerant LTOs will be coming out shortly.  If you are someone who enjoys working everyday as an OT, this is a great opportunity for you.  You get all of the perks of an LTO without having to do planning and reports.  We are running this program as a pilot project this school year in order to see if it is beneficial to the Board and the Local.

YOUR NEW COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT:  INFORMATION AVAILABLE 

I know that you are all very excited to know that your retro-payment under our new Collective Agreement was paid out on December 15, 2021.  I  requested that it be a separate deposit and not "lumped" into your regular pay.  You will be receiving the 1% increase for September 1, 2019, 1% increase for September 1, 2020 and 1% increase for September 1, 2021.  As you can imagine, this is going to take time to calculate as some of you were on several short LTOs and some of you were completing daily assignments.  

You might be asking, "What does this amount look like?"  I have included a chart here for those of you that would like to see the increases.  Please note that I have made these calculations and they have not been confirmed by payroll so they might be off by a penny or two.  Our vacation pay (4%) is added to our daily rate on each pay. 

If you are working as a Daily OT, you will notice the new Daily Rate is $237.44 plus your vacation pay of $9.50 which will equal $246.94. 

I have also attached the Basic Salary Grid for your information which shows the increases for each year in each step.   

Now that the Board has also Ratified the new terms of our Collective Agreement, you will see changes in how jobs are posted and the hiring practice.  The Board will be following their updated Hiring Procedure HR 110.  This Procedure is in alignment with the Policy/Program Memorandum 165 which was issued on February 22, 2021.  You can find the Board's new Procedure here and I have included a link to PPM 165 here. 

I would also like to inform you that the Board has put Teacher Evaluations on "pause."  The only Evaluations that should be occurring right now are for Teachers who are participating in NTIP or Teachers who are working towards a "Satisfactory" Evaluation after previously receiving an "Unsatisfactory" Evaluation.  If you have any questions or concerns regarding Evaluations, please do not hesitate to contact me.  I will reach out to individual Administrators who are looking for clarification on who should be Evaluated at the current time.

COVID -19 PAID LEAVE

PUTTING WORKERS FIRST ACT, 2021

COVID-19 Putting Workers First Act, 2021 - paid leave extended to Dec. 31, 2021

Daily Occasional Teachers may have access the three paid days of leave under Bill 248:

A qualified employee would be entitled to a paid leave of absence (not to exceed $200 per day) under Bill 284 because of one or more of the following reasons:

·         the employee is under individual medical investigation, supervision or treatment for COVID-19, including being vaccinated or recovering from vaccination;

·         the employee is acting in accordance with a section 22 or section 35 order under the Health Protection and Promotion Act that relates to COVID-19 (e.g., their workplace is shut down by a Public Health Unit and they are directed to self-isolate, etc.);

·         the employee is in quarantine or isolation as a result of information or direction from a Public Health Unit official, a qualified medical practitioner, Telehealth Ontario, the Government of Ontario, the Government of Canada, a municipal council or board of health;

·         the employee is given a direction by their employer in response to a concern that the employee may expose others in the workplace to COVID-19; and

·         the employee is providing care for a family member (i.e., dependent) who is under medical investigation, is receiving treatment or is under quarantine/isolation due to COVID-19.

Dependents include: 

·         employee’s spouse;

·         parent, step-parent, foster parent of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         child, step-child, foster child of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         child under legal guardianship of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         brother, step-brother, sister or step-sister of the employee;

·         grandparent, step-grandparent, grandchild or step-grandchild of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         brother-in-law, step-brother-in-law, sister-in-law or step-sister-in-law of the employee;

·         son-in-law or daughter-in-law of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         uncle or aunt of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         nephew or niece of the employee or employee’s spouse;

·         spouse of the employee’s grandchild, uncle, aunt, nephew or niece;

·         a person who considers the employee to be like a family member; and/or

·         any individual prescribed as a family member.

Application for payment under this program is made to the Employer.

Longer Term Absences due to Covid-19 

The Government of Canada currently offers the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CSRB). 

Information regarding the CSRB can be accessed here: CRSB

MINISTRY RESOURCES AVAILABLE

GRAND ERIE DISTRICT SCHOOL BOARD ELEMENTARY OCCASSIONAL TEACHERS UNION AT A GLANCE

A Bit of Background

The Grand Erie District School Board Occasional Teachers (GEDSBOT) is the professional and protective organization representing over 450 Occasional teachers employed in the public elementary schools of Haldimand, Norfolk and Brant. All public Occasional elementary teachers in Haldimand Norfolk and Brant are active members of GEDSBOT. We are one of 76 locals across the province.  Our Executive Members strive to effectively serve the membership.  To learn more about what each Executive Member please meet the team.

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MEET THE TEAM

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