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OSSTF District 11- Thames Valley
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District 11 Office |
Occasional Teachers' Bargaining Unit Newsletter:
September, 2007
Table of ContentsPlease click on any of the items in the Table of Contents to go to that item. |
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Message From the
President
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Branch Meetings |
To the returning members of the Bargaining Unit, Welcome Back! To any teachers new to supply teaching in the secondary panel, welcome to District 11 OSSTF!
Members seeking LTO positions should visit the Board’s First Class e-mail site and check on postings on a regular basis. For short term assignments, jobs can be searched for on the TVARRIS site.
Members are reminded that they can view their Collective Agreements through their employee portal. If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to contact the OSSTF District 11 Office. Although all staff at the office are available to assist OT members, Tony Stokes, Federation Services Officer, is assigned to handle questions and issues for the Occasional Teachers. Messages can also be left by phone at the District office: 519-659-6588. As well I can be contacted directly by email:DonRowdon@osstf11.com .
I recommend that email correspondence to me be copied to Tony Stokes (TonyStokes@osstf11.com )as well as I am part time in the office while Tony is one of our full time professional staff.
Finally, as clearly defined in Article 18 of the collective agreement, Occasional Teachers are expected to fulfill the teaching duties of the teacher being replaced. This means that it is your responsibility to deliver the lessons as prepared by the regular teacher. This includes following school procedures including not dismissing students early. Failure to do so could result in disciplinary actions by the Board. If there is insufficient work it is always helpful to have activities prepared that the students can do that are appropriate for that particular class and subject. You should be very careful showing movies that were not provided by the replaced teacher as part of the lesson plan. If you use your own movie, make sure it is rated appropriately and that the Board has licensing rights with the publisher. Also you could ask the department head for assistance. Help is also available in these situations from the OSSTF Branch President in the school. The names of Branch Presidents can easily be obtained from any staff member. Failing that, call the District Office for assistance.
In short term assignments, OT’s are expected to do regularly scheduled supervisions such as hall duty or cafeteria duty, only if the absent teacher was scheduled in advance. As well if a short term OT is given an “on-call” this should be recorded in the sign in book under periods worked and you will be paid for the on-call.
If you get asked to attend a meeting with an administrator, ask the purpose of the meeting. If it is to discuss your classroom performance, an incident in your classroom, classroom management, or anything that may lead to discipline, contact the District Office immediately and ask that the meeting be re-scheduled to a time that will allow you to bring an OSSTF Officer with you. The Administration must grant this request.
Good luck to all of you and I hope you have a successful and enjoyable semester.
Don Rowdon
The
District 11 Web Site
Members are encouraged to visit the District 11 web page (www.osstf11.com).
There is always updated information about our district including our
District Newsletter, Education Matters, and links to numerous education
sites and publications.
Branch Meetings
If there is an OSSTF meeting where you are working, ask the Branch President
if you can attend. If you are on an LTO assignment I highly recommend you
attend the Branch meetings.
The
Structure of Your OSSTF
First of all, though we are titled a “federation”, we are and always have
been a union. The political arm of OSSTF is lead by our Provincial Executive
which is elected to two year terms at our Annual Meeting of the Provincial
Assembly (AMPA). Our own Ken Coran, former District 11 President, was
elected Provincial President last March.
The rest of the Executive consists of a treasurer and three Executive
Officers. The Provincial Executive is responsible for carrying out the
initiatives, policies, and actions as established annually by AMPA. Between
meetings of AMPA, the organization is governed by Provincial Council.
District 11 has three elected Provincial Councillors. There is also an
appointed Secretariat working out of the provincial office. Secretariat
members are employees of the union rather than elected “politicians”. Their
responsibility is to serve the many needs of our members, most importantly
in Collective Bargaining and Protective Services. Members of the Secretariat
also work in the areas of Communications, Education Services (PD), Political
Action, and Excellence in Education.
Locally, we are all part of District 11, which has four separate Bargaining
Units (which means we negotiate separate Collective Agreements and have
separate constitutions and organizational structures.). The largest unit is
the contract Teachers (TBU), with ours being the second largest. The other
two are PSSP (Professional Student Services Personnel), which includes such
people as school psychologists and attendance counselors, and the Continuing
Education Instructors, which includes all those who teach non-credit
courses, such as Drivers Education and Adult Special Education.
Our District is served by a District Constitution (available on the
web-site), and by regular meetings of District Executive Council, which
meets seven times this year, and is comprised of the Bargaining Unit
Presidents, BU District Counselors (allotted to BU’s based on numbers: we
have one ), and the District President, Vice-President, and Past President.
The four Federation Services Officers also attend, but are non-voting as
they are appointed to two year terms to serve the membership of the district
(including you!) , in a way similar to the role of the provincial
Secretariat.