Latest News updated February 22, 2012
Ash Wednesday
General Meeting February 22, 2012
More details, including proposed By-Law amendments, are available by clicking 'General Meeting Notice' on the right.
Download the agenda for the February 22 General meeting.
2012 Criminal Offence Declaration (COD)
The Criminal Offence Declaration 2012 needs to be completed and submitted by April 30th to Agatha deLemos, Support Services Department, please mark "CONFIDENTIAL" on the envelope.
Download the COD 2012 form here.
Letter to the Editor, Kevin O'Dwyer, OECTA President
Dodging the Gay Issue, Toronto Star Editorial Feb. 1, 2012
"Respecting Differences" is a document produced by the Ontario
Catholic School Trustees' Association, which represents the officials
elected to sit on Catholic school boards in Ontario. The document is not
reflective of any views or input from the Ontario English Catholic
Teachers' Association (OECTA), which represents the 45,000 elementary
and secondary teachers who work in Ontario's publicly funded Catholic
schools.
OECTA has stated its support for gay-straight alliances (GSAs) and other
student-led anti-homophobia groups. OECTA teacher members are in schools
every day working with students championing efforts to make our schools
more respectful and welcoming places for everyone. They are supporting
students, including LGBT students, who are struggling with the
consequences of schools that are not safe and accepting.
Our faith teaches us to treat everyone equitably and with dignity. We
teach students to embrace and promote our common humanity.
Our mandate as teachers includes promoting active citizenship. We
encourage students to exercise leadership and take initiative in solving
problems such as bullying and homophobia. Empowering students to deal
with issues with their peers is essential if we are to make any progress
in eradicating bullying and all forms of discrimination in our schools.
It is not enough to tell students "it gets better" some day - when their
reality is today. That starts now with Bill 13, The Accepting Schools
Act.
Kevin O'Dwyer, President
Ontario College of Teachers’ Fee
If your 2012 College of Teachers’ fee was not deducted on the Jan. 19
pay (applies to all daily OT's), you are responsible for paying
your fee directly to the College no later than April 15th, 2012.
Payment can be made electronically on the College of Teachers’ web site
by credit card or by mailing a cheque.
Your 2012 College of Teachers’ fee has been increased from $120 to
$138 effective January 2012.
Daily OTs did not receive a pay on Jan. 19, when the College fees are
deducted, as the pay was for the 2-week period of our Christmas Break
(Dec.26 to Jan. 6).
Tracs Profile - adding or removing schools
In order to obtain daily work, it is important that your profile is open to make you eligible for as many assignments as possible. You do not need to be qualified in order to teach all grades/subjects, you only need to be willing to teach them. Consider expanding your profile by adding schools and classifications in February. You may change your profile only in the months of September and February.
The Webtracs profile form is on the WebTracs' General Information page. You will need to save it, make the changes, and email it to Karen Tanner at karen.tanner@dpcdsb.org
Winter 2012 Newsletter
Read the winter 2012 Newsletter.
OECTA online equity survey - Help us develop quality equity resources for you
We all know that an equitable and inclusive education system is
critical to delivering a high quality education to all of our students.
Our Catholic schools have always been guided by a deep and abiding sense
of the worth and dignity of every individual.
OECTA is conducting a survey of our members to identify what
professional development support they need to sustain equity and
inclusive education in their schools.
The survey will not take more than 15 minutes of your time, and will
provide valuable information to the Association.
All responses are confidential.
To take the survey, visit
www.surveymonkey.com/s/LGBTTIQ or click on the survey link at
www.oecta.on.ca
Read the full OECTA e-agenda here
January 2012 LOP report:
| Location |
Position |
Position Start Date |
Position End Date |
Assignment FTE |
Assignment |
Position FTE |
| St Anne |
LOP |
20111003 | 20120629 | 0.8 | FSL |
1 |
| St Anne |
LOP |
20111003 | 20120629 | 0.2 | EXFR |
1 |
| St Monica |
LOP |
20110926 | 20120629 | 0.5 | GR07 |
1 |
| St Monica |
LOP |
20110926 | 20120629 | 0.5 | GR08 |
1 |
| St Sebastian |
LOP |
20111003 | 20111201 | 1 | FSL |
1 |
| St Rose of Lima |
LOP |
20111010 | 20120629 | 0.3 | EXFR |
0.3 |
| Cardinal Newman |
LOP |
20110928 | 20120629 | 0.2 | FSL |
0.2 |
If you see a position you applied to, please contact the Dufferin-Peel OTBU office immediately.
If you applied for LTOs, hopefully you have recorded the job posting number, location, assignment description, start and end dates, and date you applied. Print the "Jobs Applied To" as your confirmation. You are asked to document and keep the data for all LTOs you apply to throughout the year!
Ontario Teacher Pension Survey
The Ontario Teachers’ Federation (OTF), the Ontario government, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTPP) have hired POLLARA, a national research firm, to conduct a survey of pension plan members to gauge their understanding of pension plan provisions and issues.
POLLARA will be conducting telephone interviews during the month of February. Specifically, some pre-testing of survey questions will occur February 7-13, 2012 and the survey itself will be conducted between February 15-29, 2012.
OECTA encourages members to participate in this survey.
Read the full OECTA e-agenda here
Board's Hiring Procedure
At
a recent Arbitration hearing, counsel for the school board explained
the Board's hiring process. On the basis of his explanation in the
hearing, the process can be summarized as follows:
should
permanent position(s) become available, the Board selects the
successful candidate(s) from either of its two "preferred to hire"
lists. One "preferred to hire" is comprised of occasional
teachers who have been recommended for permanent hire by school
administrators. Near the end of each school year, the school
board asks Principals to complete a form by writing in the names of
occasional teachers that have completed LTOs who might be candidates
for hire. The form requires the principal to indicate the OTs
area(s) of expertise and ranking of either "outstanding" or "excellent"
for purpose of hiring to a permanent position. The other list is
made up of new graduates who received ranking of "outstanding" or
"excellent" based on their Board interviews. The Board encourages
Principals to hire teachers on the "preferred to hire" lists for
permanent, as well as for LTO positions.
POPE BENEDICT XVI ELEVATES ARCHBISHOP THOMAS COLLINS
TO THE COLLEGE OF CARDINALS
TORONTO (January 6, 2012) – This morning following Mass at the Vatican, the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, announced that His Grace, Thomas Collins, Archbishop of Toronto, will be elevated to the College of Cardinals, an international group of principal advisors to the Pontiff.
OECTA congratulates Archbishop Collins on his elevation to the College of Cardinals.
Council Sets 2012 Membership Fee
The College Council today approved the annual membership fee for
2012. The annual fee, which is tax deductible, is $138 beginning January
1.
Council employs a three-year planning cycle to stabilize fees, so
Council's intention is that the $138 fee will be in place until 2014.
Your College fee is still the lowest annual fee for any regulated
profession in the province.
Changes to CPP January 1, 2012
Changes to the Canada Pension Plan may affect your contributions and benefits. Read the service Canada "need to know" page here.
Effective 1 January 2012 employees who are at least 65 years of age but under 70 and receiving a CPP retirement benefit must make contributions to CPP unless an election to stop paying CPP contributions (Form CPT30 - attached) is forwarded to the Winnipeg Tax Centre and a copy is received in the payroll department. The election will take effect on the first day of the month following the month you provide a completed and signed election form. Deductions will stop on the first pay in the month following receipt of the copy of the CPT30 in the payroll department.
New: CPP post retirement benefit for recipients 60-65. Read details here.
Should you elect to continue making contributions no further action is required on your part. Contributions made to CPP after your CPP pension has commenced will be directed towards the new Post-Retirement-Benefit (PRB). The Post-Retirement Benefit (PRB) is a new lifetime benefit that will increase your retirement income and rises with increase in the cost of living, even if you already draw the maximum pension from CPP. For more information on changes to CPP and how they will affect you please go to the Service Canada Information page.
Even if you have previously provided the Board with a copy of
your Notice of Entitlement a copy of a completed
Form CPT30 must be
received in the payroll department, if you do not wish to start
contributing to CPP again.
The original Form CPT30 must be sent to:
Winnipeg Tax Centre
Specialty Service Section
66 Stapon Road
Winnipeg, MB R3C
Pension Update - Polling of Members
The Ontario Teachers’ Federation, in co-operation with the Government
of Ontario and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, has commissioned
Pollara to undertake a poll of members. During the next couple of months
you may be contacted by Pollara to solicit your participation.
We would appreciate your co-operation in this project.
2012 OTPP Inflation Adjustment
The inflation adjustment for OTPP pensions to be applied January 1,
2012 is 2.8%.
This is also the rate to be used to adjust the pensionable salary for
members on LTD for the 2011/2012 school year.
Since conditional indexing has been set at 60% for post-2009 service,
the post-2009 portion of pensions will receive an adjustment of 1.68% (=
60% of 2.8%). The pre-2010 portion will receive the full 2.8%
adjustment.
For interest, the annual change in inflation for September 2011 was
3.2%. This is the number which is quoted in the media.
OTPP has shared this result with both the Ontario Pension Board (OPB)
and OPSEU Pension Trust, who use the same formula and time period to
calculate their inflation adjustment. Both plans have confirmed the OTPP
result.
OMERS and CPP use a calculation similar to OTPP, but their averaging
period ends in October. It is expected that their adjustment will be
around 2.8%.
If you have any questions, please contact Joe Pece at the Provincial
Office.
OECTA's Beginning Teachers' Conference 2012
OECTA's annual Beginning Teachers' Conference takes place on February 23-25, 2012 at the Hilton Toronto Airport Hotel & Suites, Mississauga, Ontario. The keynote speaker on Friday will be Dr. Jane Bluestein, author, classroom teacher and crisis intervention counsellor. Joanne Cave, founder of Ophelia's Voice, will be speaking about Educating the Next Generation of Leaders on Saturday.
Each bargaining unit is allocated one provincially sponsored delegate that has their expenses covered by OECTA Provincial office. The Conference is open to all occasional teachers who are in their first 5 years of teaching, and have not attended the conference previously. This year the OTB Unit's sponsored delegate is Dominika Telech.
It should be an exciting and informative conference!
AGM 2012
Members are encouraged to become involved in the OECTA Association by becoming an AGM delegate and submitting their interest in attending the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) from March 9th to 12th at Caesars Hotel in Windsor, Ontario.
What is OECTA? Who does it represent? What can it do for me? The duties of the delegates at AGM are:
*to approve the goarls and objectives of the planning and budget cycle;
*to set the Association fee for statutory members;
*to amend the constitution, by-laws, policies and procedures;
*to elect the Provincial Executive and board of governors; and
*to receive reports from the standing committees, work groups, project teams and task forces.
Just to name a few. It will give you an opportunity to socialize and meet other OECTA members from across the province, and to have FUN.Getting involved will give you insight to the work that goes on behind the scenes on behalf of the membership.
EMAIL THE OTBUNIT OFFICE TODAY AT dpotbunit@gmail.com
College of Teachers 2012 Elections
Elections for the sixth Governing Council of the Ontario College of Teachers
will be held from Monday, March 5 to Tuesday, April 10, 2012.
OECTA encourages members interested in helping to regulate the teaching
profession in the public interest to consider running as candidates in the
spring 2012 elections for Governing Council. The successful candidates will
serve a three year term from July 1, 2012 until June 30, 2015.
Teachers in the Catholic school system are eligible to run for the following
positions:
Two System Positions
* English Catholic Elementary – candidate must be a full-time classroom teacher
in a Catholic elementary school.
* English Catholic Secondary – candidate must be a full-time classroom teacher
in a Catholic secondary school.
12 Regional Positions
Positions are available in each of the following regions – Northwest, Northeast,
Southeast, Southcentral, Southwest, and Central:
• Six (6) full-time positions – candidate must be a full-time classroom teacher,
residing in the region where he/she is seeking election.
�� Six (6) full-time/part-time positions – must be a full-time classroom
teacher or a part-time teacher working at least 10 days in an academic year and
reside in the region where he/she is seeking election.
OECTA will consider recommending candidates whom we believe are strong and
effective teacher representatives, and are:
committed to ensuring that the College adheres to its legislative mandate
willing to work towards maintaining the fee at current level or lower committed
to fairness and equity able to work with other councillors skilled at asking
questions and making tough decisions knowledgeable about the political
environment within education and the roles of major stakeholders experienced in
local and/or provincial teacher organizations dedicated to protecting the rights
of teachers and teacher organizations willing to be an active full-time or
part-time teacher for a minimum of three years
Candidates are asked to submit the following information to Malisa Mezenberg at
m.mezenberg@oecta.on.ca or by mail to OECTA, 65 St. Clair Ave. E., Suite 400,
Toronto, ON M4T 2Y8:
* brief curriculum vitae outlining teaching experience, local/provincial teacher
organization or other relevant experience,
* two references,
* a comment on four critical issues currently facing the College of Teachers,
* a covering letter explaining why you wish to run for the Governing Council.
Further information about the College election is in the September 2011 issue of
Professionally Speaking and on the College of Teacher’s website.
Submission deadline: November 11, 2011
Contract Clauses in effect September 2011
Effective September 1, 2011 the daily rate of pay is $ 227.42. ( Article 14.02)
To remain on the O.T. List, you must teach the equivalent of at least seven (7) full days every five (5) months throughout the school year of 2011-2012. Retirees must teach the equivalent of at least fourteen (14) full days in 2011-2012. (LETTER OF UNDERSTANDING #5)
Article 13.10: Procedure
A procedure for Article 13.10 (removal from OT list) which became effective April 15th, 2011 was agreed to by both parties. Please review the procedure by clicking here.
It is imperative that you continue to document refusals, declines, cancellations, etc. (date, school, F or H day, teacher, grade, and reason(s) in case the Board requests your reasonable grounds. If you are unable to work, please make yourself “unavailable” so that the system does not take the time to call you needlessly.
Should you have any questions, please call the OTBU office.
GAP 542 - DO NOT use cellphones, PEDs during class time
It was brought to the Association's attention that occasional teachers are using their cell phones during instructional, class time thereby violating one of the Board's Procedures, GAP 542. Occasional teachers are not to use their Personal Electronic Device (PED) such as cell phones, blackberry, laptops, etc. during class time. If necessary, use your PED during recess, lunch or planning time when students are NOT present.
Read the board regulation, GAP 543
Joint Health and Safety Committee
Below is a letter from Valerie Longo, your Heath & Safety
Representative. She brings forward to the committee meetings the OT
health & safety concerns.
Read Valerie's letter to Occasional Teachers
ATTENTION: RETIRED TEACHERS - OTPP and CPP deductions
Pensioners are required to send a letter, every school year, to payroll stating that you are in receipt of Pension from the Teacher’s Pension Plan and that you understand the re-employment guidelines. Details and the letter can be found below.
LACK OF DAILY WORK
Numerous occasional teachers have expressed their concern about the lack of daily work since school started on September 6th.
In order for the association to have a greater understanding of this problem, we are asking you to please notify the Association if you have 20 or more schools on your profile and have been available at least 4 to 5 days per week, but have not received on average at least 2 days of work per week.
Please notify the OTBUnit office by faxing (905-206-9204) or emailing (dpotbunit@gmail.com) the following information: your name, employee number, phone and cell numbers, list of schools (Locations) on your profile, the grades/subjects along with the specialty subjects (Classifications), you are willing to teach, and a list of dates you were available to teach but not called for the month of September. Subsequent reports should be faxed/emailed at the end of each month, and you only need to include: your name, phone number, and the dates you were available to teach but did not work.
Employment Insurance information for 2011
Read the eligibility rules for Employment Insurance.
Read the instructions to apply for Employment Insurance.
PENSION UPDATE – tentative plan to address funding
The Ontario Teachers' Federation (OTF) and the Ontario government are
using conditional inflation protection as part of a tentative plan to
address a projected $17.2 billion funding shortfall in the Ontario
Teachers' Pension Plan. The agreement is subject to final approval by
the OTF and the government.
- If you retired before 2010, the change does not affect you. You
will continue to receive 100% inflation protection every year.
- If you retired after 2009, the change will result in annual pension
increases for the next three years that are slightly smaller than
they would be with 100% inflation protection. For example, a
typical retiree will forgo about $2 a month in inflationary
increases for three years.
The 2011 shortfall solution also includes a 1.1% contribution rate
increase for working members and recognizes the current contribution
rate as the permanent base rate.
For more information, please visit:
http://www.otpp.com/funding
http://www.FundingYourPension.com
Ontario College of Teachers issues Professional Advisory
The College issues a Professional Advisory on the Use of Social Media and Electronic Communication. The advisory includes advice to members to minimize risks by interacting with students appropriately, understanding privacy concerns, and acting professionally.
Travel Benefits - for OT's on the Board's Medical Plan
Read details of your medical and travel coverage.
Fw: Benefit bulletin: New Requirement When Submitting Claims for Orthotics
For those on the board medical plan, read the new requirements here.
Effect of Re-employment Amendments on OECTA
The change in the definition of “re-employed pensioner” will have an impact on the operations of Association, including the unit and OTBU level, where a retiree receives remuneration for any purpose. Read the details here.
Pensions - The 95/20 RULE IS RETIRING
A NEW SINGLE LIMIT WILL APPLY. Beginning September 1, 2012, all retirees will be subject to a single limit as to the number of days they may work. The 95/20 rule will be “retired.” The new limit will be 50 days for everyone, irrespective of your number of years of retirement. Read the full OTF Communique.
More on the Pension News page at the right.
More details on the new re-employment rules on the OTPP web site at http://www.otpp.com/Reemployment
Family Life
Family Life is included in the Catholic Curriculum. Read the e-agenda here.
We Share the Air - Scent Sensitivity Campaign
Scent Sensitivity…Be Aware…Show you care! Details on the Health and Safety page
Occasional Teacher’s Name Tag
OTs are now able to print their own I.D. name tag!
After logging into Webtracs, click on Internal Job Opportunities link and log in again. Click on the name badge “click here”. Make sure the badge size is correct for your plastic holder. You may be able to make the badge smaller using your printer software.
Please wear your name tag to schools every day you are working as a daily occasional teacher.