Heavy-handed interference

Dear sir:
I have some questions for Education minister Janet Ecker.
On May 2, the Rainy River School Board ratified a staffing agreement for the 2000/2001 school year that was negotiated in good faith with the Rainy River District of OSSTF.
Both parties to this deal agreed this was the best staffing arrangement possible–in terms of benefits to our students–that we could mutually agree to, under the restrictions your ministry imposed.
Negotiations were difficult because you kept changing the rules on us. None of us could understand why you did this. After all, you are the minister of education but your rules did not seem to have anything to do with improving the education of our students.
However, we did manage to negotiate a deal that was in keeping with all of the rules and restrictions that were contained in Bill 160, and your own Policy/Program Memoranda. Our deal would have seen our teachers spend more time with the same number of students they presently have. This would have been very beneficial to our students, especially in view of all the reforms you are rushing through.
Now you are changing the rules again with Bill 74. Your new rules are interesting. Instead of having teachers spend more time with individual students, you will force teachers to teach an extra class. Teaching an extra class means teachers will have more students and less time with each individual one.
It also means there will be fewer teachers teaching more students.
How will this improve the education of our students, or is it that your real agenda is to decrease the number of teachers so you will not have to put additional money into your inadequate funding formula?
You must have really felt affronted by our deal. It appears as if your new rules will ensure that never again will we be able to come up with local solutions to problems your ministry creates for small northern boards. You have given yourself unprecedented powers. You have taken the last vestiges of local control and centralized all the decision-making at Queen’s Park.
Our trustees are elected locally and are accountable to local voters and ratepayers. Why do you wish to diminish their powers?
Why do you need the power to dismiss trustees, to fine them up to $5,000, and to restrict their ability to run for office for five years? Why would you want to take over our board and run it from Toronto if you disagree with how these locally-elected trustees discharge their responsibilities? What do you think these democratically and locally-elected trustees will be doing to warrant such heavy-handed discipline?
You have interfered with a contract that was entered into in good faith by two parties, a deal that was agreed to and ratified by both. You are giving principals the power to override any restrictions in a collective agreement concerning workload. If your government can override teachers’ contracts at will, what is the value of any contract?
The secondary teachers of Rainy River District have always felt very positive about all of the extracurricular activities they have volunteered to do. Whether it be music, drama, sports, student government, or any of the many other activities that our teachers willingly and enthusiastically volunteer their time for, they have enjoyed this additional contact with students and have always felt pride in their accomplishments.
For some reason, you seem to feel the need to interfere in a system that works very well for our community.
You now propose to force teachers to do voluntary activities. Not only that but you would have teachers “on-call” 24 hours a day, seven days a week, anywhere. In addition, you are saying that nothing in a collective agreement may prevent this from happening.
You have set up a system of “informers” who can notify you of any example of non-compliance. Employees of a board who fail to comply with your directives are personally liable for a $5,000 fine and are subject to dismissal. For you to take action, you need only be of the “opinion” that a report discloses “evidence” of non-compliance.
Amazingly, these proceedings cannot be reviewed by the courts. Doesn’t this seem a little heavy-handed when extracurricular activities are thriving locally?
You also are proposing school councils be involved with these forced voluntary activities. I find it ironic that parents, who are volunteering, will be mandating voluntary activities for the teachers. Does this make any sense?
Presently there is a teacher shortage in Ontario that is growing more severe every day as experienced teachers, eligible to retire, do so immediately. There also is a teacher shortage in the United States. American states are actively recruiting our teachers because they know Ontario’s teachers are well qualified.
Just as Premier Mike Harris’ health care policy forced thousands of doctors and nurses to leave Ontario, and caused dangerous staff shortages and overloaded hospitals, now Bill 74 will do the same things to teachers and we’ll soon have a staffing crisis in our schools.
How will this be good for education?
Signed,
Andrew Hallikas
President, OSSTF
District 5B