The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario reached a tentative agreement Nov. 2 with the province and the Ontario Public School Boards Association, meaning classroom activities went back to normal for Ottawa-Carleton District School Board elementary students.
Extracurricular activities have been cancelled since Oct. 28, the result of a work-to-rule campaign by the elementary teachers.
The campaign came amid ongoing negotiations between elementary teachers, the school board and the provincial government. The union, which represents 78,000 teachers, has been without a contract since August 2014.
Classroom sizes, preparation time, and wage increases were key issues during negotiations.
The tentative deal includes pay hikes that are in line with those given to members of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation.
The work-to-rule campaign began in May, with teachers not participating in EQAO provincial testing, making report card comments, or participating in staff meetings. In August, the union escalated the job action by not participating in field trips or fundraising activities, and not attending open houses outside of the instructional day.
Wynne warned the union that their members’ pay could be deducted if an agreement was not reached or if the job action went on too long or intensified.
“We are committed to a fair bargaining process,” she said at the time. “But at some point, that process must come to a conclusion.”
Extracurricular activities stopped at local elementary schools between Oct. 28 and Nov. 2, which made some think back to the work-to-rule campaign of 2013, which lasted much longer than this one.
Glashan Public School principal Jim Tayler said during the late-October suspension of extracurricular events there were fewer announcements in the morning about school activities.
“The school is much quieter – particularly in the mornings, after school and during nutrition breaks,” he said on Oct. 30. “The rest of the school is normal, or as normal as possible under the circumstances. We’re trying to focus on students still thriving and giving them every learning opportunity possible.”
Luke Derby, a Grade 8 student at Glashan who participates on multiple sports teams such as football and hockey, said at the time that the lack of extracurricular activities meant he was not as busy.
“It’s not as fun,” he said in October. “It’s not affecting our learning as much, but affects what we do – there are not as many opportunities to do things.”
Glashan is known for its trips to Quebec City and Montreal for Grade 7 and 8 students, which usually happen in the spring. Before the tentative agreement, it was unclear as to whether those trips would go ahead.
When a labour dispute threatened the Montreal trip in 2013, parents stepped up to try to organize it themselves. Eventually teachers agreed to go ahead with the trip that year.
Sandra Derby, chair of the Glashan School Council, a link between parents and the school’s administration, said staff members were doing their best under difficult circumstances.
“The staff are so phenomenal – they are trying to do what they can. The staff are what makes Glashan so wonderful,” Derby said during the suspension of extracurricular activities. “We are hopeful there will be a resolution soon.”
Sharlene Hunter, communications officer for the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board, had said in a statement that the withdrawal of voluntary supervision of extracurricular activities was disappointing to students and the community.
“The withdrawal of services by the (union) is negatively impacting our capacity to operate our schools as we would normally,” she had stated.
The tentative agreement struck on Nov. 2 was to be voted on by union members and the results tallied this month, but ratification is widely expected.