Families may feel relatively confident about the first day of school this year. “I think everybody wants it to be normal, but they recognize there are still so many different things at play that it probably won’t be,” said ETFO President Jeff Pellich. “Between the ongoing COVID, the challenges with the data breach over the summer, and the fact that we will be negotiating with the province, there is a lot of uncertainty. “There are a lot of factors that could derail things very, very quickly.” Education workers in Ontario, including public elementary and secondary school teachers, had contracts that expired on Aug. 31. While teachers will be back in the classroom this week and no strike is imminent at this point, Pelich says it will depend on the posture at the provincial bargaining table as to how quickly it could escalate. Talks to set a bargaining framework with ETFO, the province’s largest teachers’ union, are just beginning. The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) has filed for conciliation and has scheduled a strike vote for later this month. With a new public awareness campaign called “$39,000 is not enough,” CUPE is seeking a raise of $3.25 an hour (about 11.7 percent over three years) for the school board’s 55,000 employees, including custodians, educational assistants and early childhood teachers, who currently earn an average of $39,000. Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce offered a two per cent increase for those currently earning under $40,000 and 1.25 per cent for those earning more, saying the offer is “fair and reasonable and affordable for taxpayers” . But Laura Walton, teaching assistant and president of CUPE’s Ontario School Boards Council of Unions, said accepting the deal would only exacerbate the issue of staff turnover due to low pay. “That’s why we’re calling on Stephen Lecce and (Premier) Doug Ford to rescind their offensive offer, pay workers a living wage and invest in more staff to provide the services students rely on,” Walton said. in a press release. In addition to several improvements to education support that the ETFO will support, its members will seek wage increases that match or exceed the rate of inflation, which currently stands at 7.6%. “There’s nothing wrong with saying our wages have to match or exceed the level of inflation,” Pelich said. While he acknowledged the public union is supported by taxpayers, Pelich said the government’s decisions to scrap license plate stickers and give tax breaks to the province’s wealthiest earners are offensive to teachers. “For us, it’s about having real conversations about what we value and what we feel is important,” he said. Many long-standing issues, including the need for smaller class sizes and increased support for vulnerable students, remain the same, Pelich says. “We’re not necessarily just talking about more for teachers,” he said. “We are also talking about more intensive support for students through psychologists, educational assistants, speech pathologists and paraprofessionals – staff who can work with students who are struggling the most to help them. “Too often, we see these students being put in a classroom and expected to cope when they don’t have the skills or abilities to do so, and that’s why we see increases in violence because it’s usually a symptom of something else. It’s a kid trying to tell us something that he’s not getting what he needs, and unfortunately, it’s impossible when you have 30 other students in front of you to give every student what they need.” Whether the same story of understaffing and failure to fill will play out in schools this fall is anyone’s guess, Pelich said. He added that lifting the province’s five-day COVID isolation requirement doesn’t make sense from a health and safety perspective. “It puts staff and students at undue risk by forcing them to return to school before they are no longer contagious.” The mask is currently a personal choice for students and staff in public schools, but Pelich said ETFO has always supported the highest level of protection. “We think there should be a mandatory mask and certainly some more health and safety precautions should be put in place,” he said. “The province was not prepared for what we went through in recent years and continues to be ill-prepared.”
As for the ramifications of a data breach that occurred at the Waterloo Region School Board earlier this summer, the consequences are still unknown. The board’s external communication platforms, such as its website and social media accounts, are currently up and running, but Pelich expects there may be some hiccups as the school year begins. “The board has been very careful about what it shares with everyone, including employee groups,” he said. “I think everyone would like more information. that there was more understanding of exactly what was going on.” — with files from the Toronto Star THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY: With the start of a new school year, teacher contracts expiring and COVID-19 isolation requirements changing, the Chronicle checked in with ETFO President Jeff Pelich. SHARE: