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E a s t e r n   U p d a t e - Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

No Compensatory Time for Server Failure: Board Position;
OECTA to Grieve
Late yesterday afternoon, the Board finally responded to OECTA’s call for compensatory time with occasional teacher coverage for elementary teachers who were unable to complete report cards last Thursday. In brief, the Board’s position was no.

The rationale presented for the Board’s position was that March 4th was not a report card under the Provincial Discussion Table agreement. Rather, it was a locally negotiated day (Letter of Understanding, p 50 of the Collective Agreement.) This letter states that the day is to be used by elementary teachers for classroom related activities such as assessment, evaluation, program development and IEP revision and completion. Therefore, the Board contends, teachers had every opportunity to use the time in other ways, and the day was not wasted.

I.E.P.’s, of course, were not accessible when the server was down. And when pointed out that the day was positioned jointly at the Joint Board OECTA PD Committee so that teachers could do report cards on the day, this was acknowledged. Never the less, the Board stands by its position.

With regards to OECTA’s call for the due date for report cards to be moved to after the March break, the Board’s response is that principals could be approached for an extension to the deadline by individual teachers, and that such requests would not be unreasonably denied.

In light of the Board’s position, OECTA has been left no option but to grieve to compensate teachers for the loss of personal time that they would have had to use in lieu of Thursday, to complete report cards. Staff Reps are asked to collect the names of each individual teacher who was affected by the server failure along with the amount of time they lost. (See attached form) Please submit this documentation to the Unit by March 26th.

School Name: __________________________________
Staff Rep: _____________________________________