Trillium Lakelands District School Board announced in a Labour Update on their website today that students will not be bringing home progress reports this month.
Trillium Lakelands District School Board has determined that due to the current labour situation in our 41 elementary schools, progress reports will not be going home with students on November 13th. Kindergarten classroom observation opportunities are also postponed at this time.
As of Wednesday, October 28, 2015 elementary teachers are not participating in extra-curricular activities as part of the strike action already in place in Phase 3 of their strike protocol. All public elementary teachers in Ontario began strike action in the spring as part of contract negotiations through their teacher federation, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO). On Monday, September 21, 2015 additional sanctions were added to the elementary teachers strike protocol.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) began strike action on September 10, 2015. On Tuesday, September 29th additional sanctions were added to the CUPE staff strike protocol.
All TLDSB schools remain open as usual during this strike action by ETFO and CUPE staff members.
Student and staff safety is always our primary concern. We will continue to provide information to parents about any strike action that changes the regular operation of our schools.
I think we are focusing on the wrong thing with education. The Act itself needs to be looked at and revamped but certainly not by this government. How and when were teachers’ job descriptions changed that their job does not require them to make regular reports to parents on the progress of their children. Teachers at private schools get less pay than public schools and they keep their parents totally informed on the students progress. The reports are a complete joke in that they tell the parents nothing about their child’s progress even when they send them out. Parents need to demand value for their tax dollars and that may mean an organized movement to private schools and a total residential and business withdrawal of school tax payments at the local level.