EDUCATION
editionap.ca Board prepared for lock-out as “last resort”
jeopardize the safet y of students. “It’s i m portant to understand that we would onl y lock out e m plo y ees or close schools/buildings if student safet y is at risk. We would not use such a m easure as a punitive tool. Such an action b y our Board would be a last resort,” stressed board chair Greg Pieters m a.
Trustees have passed the following m o- tion: “The continuing labour dispute be- tween the Minister of Education and the unions representing our e m plo y ees has placed us in the position that we are now in a legal strike/lockout position with the Ontario Secondar y School Teachers’ Fed- eration as of Nove m ber 7, 2012. The Board
takes the safet y of our students ver y seri- ousl y . The Upper Canada District School Board authorizes the Director of Educa- tion to use the power vested in the Board to protect our students’ safet y b y closing one or m ore of our schools/buildings or b y locking out the staff of one or m ore of our schools/buildings if the need arises.”
NEWSROOM@EAP.ON.CA PRESCOTT-RUSSELL
The Upper Canada District School Board is read y to lock out teachers and close schools if an ongoing labour dispute is dee m ed to
Blog on turmoil
newsroo m @eap.on.ca BROCKVILLE | The Upper Canada Dis- trict School Board has introduced a new blog to keep the public informed of the status of its contract negotiations with teachers and support staff. The first blog post fro m chair Greg Pi- eters m a explains the purpose of the site known as ‘Students First, Always!’ (students- firstalwa y s.ca). “Our first use of this portal will be to ad- dress the tur m oil created b y the Ontario Minister of Education’s approach to this round of contract talks,” sa y s Pieters m a. “We will use this blog to provide the facts regarding what is happening with contract talks and what is happening in our schools. This is our wa y to keep ever y one infor m ed of the truth, to sta y ahead of potential ru- m ours and m isunderstandings.” The blog also features the Web site links for the Ontario Secondar y School Teachers’ Federation, the Ele m entar y Teachers’ Fed- eration of Ontario, the Canadian Union of Public E m plo y ees, the Ontario Ministr y of Education and People for Education. “We chose to include those links because we want ever y one to see what various others are sa y ing about the govern m ent’s legislation and other related issues. This is a transparent blog that offers a wide ex- change of infor m ation and ideas,” stated Pieters m a. Visitors to the blog site can respond with their questions and opinions. All questions will be answered b y the school board as quickl y as possible. “This site will be used in the future for other ke y purposes to disse m inate use- ful and accurate infor m ation as quickl y as possible to our co mm unities. For ex- a m ple, this would have been a great co m - m unication tool for us to have used in 2009-10 during the H1N1 crisis,” explained Director of Education David K. Tho m as. Other features on the site include: A dashboard listing of all the Board’s schools and a colour code to outline the status of co and extra-curricular activities. This will provide visitors with an instant pic- ture of the levels of activities in the Board’s 87 schools; A link to Chair Pieters m a’s blog and the Upper Canada District School Board’s blog known as Who is in charge of the school house?; A link to Director Tho m as’ blog; A glossar y of ite m s related to collective bargaining; and A flow chart of the collective bargaining process. There is the potential for labour action in the co m ing weeks and m onths. “We will do an y thing we can do to lessen the anxiet y and frustration that acco m panies events like labour disruptions,” said Pieters m a.
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