New Collective Agreements Support Teacher Professionalism (From the General Secretary)

Elementary teachers are professionals. They understand how  best  to  organize their  time and   commitments  to  meet  the  educational needs of their students. ETFO collective agreements support teacher professionalism. A  case  in  point  is  the  newly  negotiated language relating to staff meetings. During the last round of negotiations language about staff meetings was placed in  every collective agreement for our teacher members.

As you will note in Christine Brown’s column on page 34, the new collective agreements do not make attendance at staff meetings mandatory. Teachers are expected to attend  them, and in most cases doing so is probably wise. However, you are not required to attend.

Furthermore, the agreements stipulate that staff  meetings,  on average, must be no more than 75 minutes  long and held no more than once a month. The dates for  the year’s staff meetings should be scheduled at the beginning of the year in consultation with the teachers in  the  school.  The  teachers  should  also  be consulted  on  the  agenda  for  staff  meetings. Meetings should begin as soon as possible after classroom responsibilities have concluded and, in any case, no more than 15 minutes after students have been dismissed.

Why is it important to have these restrictions on staff meetings?

Traditionally staff meetings were an opportunity  for   boards  and  principals  to  deliver information to teachers  and education workers and for the staff to discuss  administrative and operational issues. Recently teachers have been  overwhelmed with  new  demands from the Ministry  of Education and school boards eager to implement new  initiatives and raise test scores. The collective agreement provisions help to allow teachers to focus their energy on the  tasks they know will truly support  their students’ learning.

There have been growing concerns about staff  meetings being used to  deliver compulsory  professional development. This  violates ETFO’s  belief   (outlined  in  our  policy  statement)  that  professional  learning  should  be self-directed and freely chosen  by the teacher. As professionals, teachers do not want to be subjected  to  professional development  someone else has decided on. While the collective agreement does not prohibit the imposition of compulsory PD, it does establish limits.

Staff meetings are addressed in your collective  agreement. Divisional and  similar  meetings are not  staff meetings. If divisional and similar  meetings  are  not  addressed  in  your collective agreement, it is the  position of the federation that your attendance at such meetings is voluntary. Again, this is not to say you should not attend. Rather, you should use your professional judgement. The decision to attend is yours to make.

Similarly  how  you  use  your  preparation time  is  strictly  your  decision  to  make. Your preparation time is not to be used for meetings unless you agree. Divisional and like meetings are  not  to  be  held  during  preparation  time unless the teacher participants have agreed.

As professionals, teachers understand their duty to their students. The know in any real emergency they are expected to cooperate with each other and with the school administration and act in the best interests of  students and other staff.

Administrators who treat all educators like mature professionals are acting to benefit the whole  school  community. They are  working to create an atmosphere of dignity and respect that cannot help but be  transmitted to everyone  in  the  school.  It’s  an  approach  that  is encouraged  by  the  collective  agreement  language ETFO has negotiated.