Elementary school teachers can return to extracurricular activities

Kids just want to have fun – and now they can.

After enduring months with little extracurricular activity, Ontario elementary school teachers have the choice to once again to supervise outside school hours.

“As trustee for schools in Centretown, this is good news for students,” says Jennifer McKenzie, chair of the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board and trustee for Somerset-Kitchissippi. “We didn’t get the full level of activity that we had when teachers were participating.”

Elementary school teachers stopped volunteer work in early December after Bill-115 was made public. Since then, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario has been in discussion with the provincial government to find a solution and make an agreement between the parties.

The discussion is regarding “items of concrete importance to our members,” said federation president Sam Hammond in a statement on March 26.

The key discussion items were released by the  federation early this month. These include topics such as maternity leave benefit enhancements, sick leave and job security for non-teacher federation members. Details of the agreement are yet to be finalized.

Pending the final agreement, all 76,000 members of the federation  must vote to approve the contract.

The original announcement from the federation lifting the advice for teachers to not participate in extracurriculars came on March 26.

Elementary school teachers and students in Centretown will be able to get back to their clubs, fieldtrips and after-school activities with an agreement finally reached.

But it is still unclear if schools will restart programs they were not able to maintain with only a few months of school left.

Elementary schools will be working with their principal and staff members to implement the best response of resuming activities, says McKenzie.

“School is about academics but it’s also about student well-being. There’s a connection to the school spirit when students participate in activities other than the classroom activities,” says McKenzie.

Extracurricular activities can be linked to social skill development, teamwork and an outlet for stress, experts believe. When the teachers stopped volunteering their time, community members stepped in to help out where they could.

“Some students and parents did pick up leadership roles during that time and we’re going to continue to operate both with teachers and community members in extracurricular activities,” says McKenzie.