SRTA Newsletter December 2005

7/30/2019 SRTA Newsletter December 2005

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2005 – 2006 Executive

President - Sandy Turcotte,Vice - Georgina Dyck-Hacault Secretary – Suzanne MooreTreasurer – Bernie Lamoureux PD Chair - Penny Alcock WHS Chair - Bernie Lamoureux Negotiations - Georgina Dyck-

Hacault EIE – Erin PichePR – Suzanne Moore

In this Issue . . .

� Brian Ardern visits SRTA � Bill 13 finalized � Brian Ardern supports BC

Teachers � PD Update

� A Balanced Day? � CEC Meetings

Council Meeting Dates @St. Norbert Collegiate

February 9, 2006 April 10, 2006

May/June, 2006 TBA

Upcoming Events . . .School Visits

February 9 Meetingfeaturing Nancy Kerr

Contact/ information

Sandy Turcotte, PresidentCollege St. Norbert Collegiate870 Ste. Therese AvenueWinnipeg, MB R3V [email protected]

Editor: Suzanne MooreDawson Trail School [email protected]

President’s ReportSandy Turcotte

I would like to say thank you to all theschools I have visited thus far.Everyone has been very welcoming. Ienjoyed the conversations, theopportunity to answer questions and tomeet everyone on a personal level. Yourschools are very busy places. You do somuch for our students. They arefortunate to have such committed,caring teachers. I look forward tocompleting my visits in the new year.

I would also like to thank the executivefor all the work they have done tosupport you as teachers. They have alsobeen a great support to me in my roleas president.

On behalf of the executive and myself,we would like to wish you and yourfamilies a very safe, restful & merryChristmas and a peaceful, happy NEW

Volume 1.2

SRTA Council Meeting

Thursday, February 9, 2006

At 4:30 p.m.

Coll‘ege St. Norbert Collegiate

Featuring Nancy Kerr, Staff Officer

Manitoba Teachers’ Society

Topic: Maternity

All SRTA Members welcome

(not just reps)

Door Prize Winners

December 7, 2005

Sandra PottGeorgina Dyck-Hacault

Liette WierDebra Mitosinka

Not sure what your contrac

states? Go to the followin

website for the completedocument:

http://www.mbteach.org/collective%20agreements/agreementslist.htm

SRSD Employee

Ice Fishing Derby

Saturday, January 2111:00 am to 3:00 pm

Near the Selkirk Bridge on thRed River

NO COST!! PRIZES!!



Province releases

regulations on special

education -- Bill 13Nov. 2, 2005 The provincial government has releasedlong-awaited regulations for Bill 13, itslegislation for special education.

MTS President Brian Ardern said the Society isgenerally happy with the new regulations,which basically puts in writing what teachershave been doing for years.

He hopes the regulations will bring about agreater level of consistency across theprovince in the provision of services.

The Minister of Education issued theAppropriate Educational ProgrammingRegulation. This regulation will come intoforce when the change to The Public SchoolsAct that was passed in the summer of 2004 isproclaimed. The Act and the regulations arethe result of the recommendations made inthe Report of the Manitoba Special EducationReview, 1998.

The Minister has also issued the EducationAdministration Miscellaneous Provisionsregulation. This amendment complements theAppropriate Educational Programmingregulation and deals with administrators’ responsibilities for pupil files and suspensionand expulsion of students.

For more information about Bill 13, go tohttp://www.mbteach.org/news.htm and followthe link to the provincial news release.

Wellness Committee

Update

The Wellness committee is a cross-sectionalgroup of employees of the Seine River SchoolDivision. It has been meeting for more thana year, focussing on four components:

� Communications

� Morale� Professional Activity� Stress

Anyone who is an employee is welcome to join the committee.

Each school is asked to select a Wellnessrepresentative for the school beforeChristmas; someone other than the SRTArepresentative. More information is beingforwarded to school principals. We needactive, positive and energetic people who arewilling to effect a change in Seine RiverSchool Division.

The upcomingice fishingderby is anexample of a

WellnessCommitteeinitiative. OnJanuary 21,2006 all SRSDemployees areinvited to

participate from 11:00 am—3:00 pm nearthe Selkirk Bridge on the Red River atSelkirk. Participants should bring their ownfishing equipment (will be available if youhave none) and bait is provided. Prizes for a

variety of reasons will be awarded. There isno cost and the emphasis is on FUN! FUN!!FUN!!! It is hoped that this activity will helpus to de-stress, to network andcommunicate more, and to be a moralebooster . In the end, it will benefit the

students if the staff is a happier staff.

VISITING A COUNTRY SCHOOL

While visiting a country school, the chairman of theBoard Of Education became provoked at the noise the

unruly students were making in the next room.

Angrily, he opened the door and grabbed one of thetaller boys who seemed to be doing most of the talk-

ing. He dragged the boy to the next room and stood him in the corner.

A few minutes later, a small boy stuck hishead in the room and pleaded, "Please, sir, may

we have our teacher back?"



Schools hosting

CEC Meetings

January 16, 2006 Richer SchoolFebruary 20, 2006 Ecole St. Norbert ImmersionMarch 20, 2006 Collège Ste. Anne CollegiateApril 17, 2006 Arborgate School

May 15, 2006 Ste. Anne Elementary

All meetings are from 7:00—9:00 p.m.

SRTA Reps from these schools are asked to hostthe event and report back to the Seine RiverTeachers’ Association.

Professional DevelopmentPenny Hovorka- Alcock

SRTA PD Chair is working with MTS on preparinga Needs Assessment (survey) for the SRSD

teachers to fill out. The survey will be sent outto the SRTA School Reps with instructions inJanuary 2006 and they will be dispersed to allthe SRTA members in their school to completeby a certain date. The PD Needs Assessmentwill provide us with information on where PDsupport is needed/wanted by teachers. Allinformation is confidential. A PD NeedsAssessment has not been done for the SRTA inover five years. MTS is providing the fundingand assistance for this survey.

Brian Ardern, Provincial President of the Manitoba Teachers’ Society addressed theSRTA members at the general council meeting on December 7, 2005 at Collège St.Norbert Collegiate. Accompanied by Pat Isaac, MTS Vice-President, he spoke to themembers about the history of the Society and its present concerns and issues. All those present then enjoyed a tasty pasta meal, followed by the general meeting.

A Balanced Day ?

Submitted by: Georgina Dyck-Hacault

RECENT media reports have focused on a so-called “balanced day” for students, which has apparentlycaught the interest of one or two school divisions. Tidea is to organize the school day other than thetraditional way. In the particular version that was ci

in the press, there are three uninterrupted 100-minlearning periods and two food and exercise breaks trequire a further 90 minutes.

Balance is a familiar concept to teacher collectivebargainers. In fact, seeking balance in the workplacso that there is an equitable and supportive workenvironment is central to the purpose of bargainingsuch a work environment, teachers would enjoyappropriate salary and benefits, as well as fair andreasonable working conditions.

On any given day in such a workplace, teachers coucount on an adequate amount of guaranteed

preparation time, as well as a guaranteed duty-freeminute meal period within a school day that is 5½hours in length. In such a workplace, teachers wouknow that there are reasonable limits on their classsizes, and that they would have appropriate supporand resources to deal with the diverse range of neetheir students have. In such a workplace, it would brecognized that teachers, like all workers, need tobalance their work lives with their home lives. Famimedical leave, paid maternity and parental leave,religious holy leave, and personal leave would all beavailable in an effort toward striking that balance.

Teacher collective bargainers know, and all teachersshould know, that equitable workplaces will only coabout or be maintained through collective bargaininThey know that the guaranteed working conditionsthat teachers do enjoy are a result of the dedicatedbargaining efforts of their teacher associations, andthey can take comfort in knowing that because theyare embodied in the collective agreement, thoseworking conditions cannot be unilaterally altered bythe employer. But teacher collective bargainers arewell aware that while some gains have been made,there is still much more to achieve.

None of the above is to suggest that teachers opposchange, nor is it proof that teachers’ “union-side” isconflict with their “professional-side.” To the contrateachers, being professional educators, welcomeinnovation and change that will enhance the educatof their students. But teachers know that goodteaching situations bring about good learningsituations. Whether it is an innovative approach or atraditional one, in order to be most effective, teacherequire a supportive and equitable work environme

In other words, they need a “balanced day.” *Reprinted with permission from Solidarity. ( www.mbteach.org)



Oct. 20, 2005

An Oct. 17 editorial in the Brandon Sunattacked public school teachers, especiallythose in British Columbia, for being only

concerned with their own well-being.

It suggested that all that teachers want is a largepay increase and warned, “This situation … willone day spread here.”

It says the NDP government will never say no tothe teachers’ demands for “large annual wageincreases and more incentives.”

MTS President Brian Ardern responded to theeditorial with the following letter to the editor:

Your October 17 editorial, ‘It’s not about the kids’ is disappointing because it reduces complex issuesto a simple sound bite. Perhaps a more balancedpiece would have noted the following:

· BC teachers negotiated limits on class sizeinto legally binding collectiveagreements. The Campbell governmentreneged on those agreements and guttedlegal contracts.

· The Campbell government then eliminated2,500 teaching positions and closed over

100 schools.

· Then the Campbell government strippedteachers of their legal right to bargain acollective agreement and insisted theywould get only what government decidedthey should get.

· The Campbell government then revokedthe legal right of teachers to strike.

The BC Premier has refused to talk to teachers,preferring instead to order them around with

legislation. In fact, he has passed no fewer thansix different laws to penalize and take away therights of teachers. Having changed the rules inthe middle of the game and taken away all thelegal rights that teachers had, the Campbell

government now calls them criminals and runs tothe courts.

I was in BC for their October 17th rally. Theteachers whom I spoke to never mentionedsalaries. They talked about growing class sizesand deteriorating learning conditions. They askewhat they’re supposed to do when theirgovernment won’t talk to them, won’t negotiatewith them, and legislates, step by step, to takeaway every right they have.

As for Manitoba, we have not lost a single schoolday to labour disputes in nearly 50 years. Wageincreases for Manitoba teachers have not beenlarge, as the author suggests - but around threepercent in recent years. They have also beennegotiated not by the provincial government, butby locally elected school boards.

Sincerely,Brian Ardern, PresidentThe Manitoba Teachers' Society

http://www.mbteach.org/news.htm

Double Positives?

A linguistics professor was lecturing to his class one day. "In English," he said, "A double negative forms a positive. In some languages, though, suchRussian, a double negative is still a negative. However, there is no language wherein a double positive can form a negative."

A voice from the back of the room piped up, 'Yeah, right.'

Documents

SRTA Newsletter December 2005