How much goes to legal fees?

Janet Steffenhagen’s blog talks about how much money school boards spend on legal fees. SD5 is mentioned (Southeast Kootenay, $71,555)!
So, go to her blog and read about school district payments to Harris & Co. You might find it interesting: http://communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/reportcard/archive/2009/10/27/school-districts-and-the-money-spent-on-harris-amp-co.aspx.

Someone to watch out for?

I have never done this before. What if I don't do anything and something happens?

The FDTA office received a fax from the Elk Valley Animal Clinic's fax number.

The fax was a document from the State of Florida's sex offender watch list.

The fax I received states that this man is currently in Fernie, and planning to stay here for the winter season.

Here is the link to the profile that was faxed to this office this morning.

Since it is from a public website, there should not be any issue of privacy. Having said that, this is for member information only.

Influenza A (H1N1): What you need to know...

October 2009 (thanks to SD6 for this)

• Know Your Level of Risk
• Will Schools Be Closed?
• Protect Yourself and Others
• Know Your Rights to Safe Work

Teachers are expressing concern about the coming flu season and, in particular, the threat of an Influenza A pandemic. Influenza A is a group of influenza viruses including H1N1 and Avian Flu, to name two of the more concerning strains.

This is a somewhat detailed document. However it is not possible to cover all scenarios and situations.
.....

Know Your Level of Risk

Teachers must judge their own vulnerability, and talk to their doctors now about a plan if they have concerns.

There are two specific groups who are at a higher level of risk: people with compromised immune systems and women who are pregnant. If you are at a higher level of risk, make an appointment to see your doctor and, if your doctor believes that you should not be exposed to influenza, get a note to make your administrator aware. Copy the note to [the union] office.

Ask your administrator if there are confirmed cases of Influenza A at your worksite. If so, you have the option of asking for an accommodation to work at another site, or requesting a medical leave until you have been vaccinated.

Teachers teaching on call who are at a higher risk should also seek medical advice and, if your doctor believes that you should not be exposed, ask for a note to have on hand should you be working at a site with reported cases of influenza. TOCs who are at higher risk should ask about numbers of confirmed cases at the school site to which they are being called.

For some, this plan may include refusal of unsafe work as soon as Influenza A is suspected in a school, not when the teacher becomes symptomatic. The union will support this process, which is explained more fully in a following section.
....

Protect Yourself and Others

• Get reliable information on dealing with influenza (www.fightflu.ca for example).
• If you are sick, stay home!

Know Your Rights to Safe Work

The Workers’ Compensation Board (also known as WCB and “WorkSafe BC”) has an Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (3.12.1) that governs unsafe work. It says:

“A person must not carry out or cause to be carried out any work process or operate or cause to be operated any tool, appliance, or equipment if that person has reasonable cause to believe that to do so would create an undue hazard to the health and safety of any person.”

This means that any worker has the right to refuse unsafe work under these terms.

However, keep in mind that the final decision will be made by a WCB Prevention Officer. These officers will treat Influenza A or any communicable disease as one that is a “community spread and acquired infection”. Their interpretation is that, even though schools are identified as “amplification points” for community borne illnesses, you have as much chance of picking up the virus at the grocery store, movie theatre, or from other members of your family as you do at work.

There is no reason that a member cannot exercise this right as each decision is done on a case by case basis. Workers exercising these rights are not subject to discipline during any investigation by WCB. Once a Prevention Officer has made a decision, though, the worker and employer must comply with any order issued.

In summary, members have the right to refuse unsafe work. However we cannot predict any outcomes of exercising this right as WCB Prevention Officers may view Influenza A as a community and not a workplace infection.

Pension contribution rates to increase

It is official! You will be paying more into your pension plan as of July 1st, 2010.

From the TPP website under "whats new" (http://www.pensionsbc.ca):

(excerpts)

Teachers’ Pension Plan member and employer contribution rates will each increase by 1.04 per cent of salary starting July 1, 2010. The Teachers’ Pension Board of Trustees approved this contribution increase after receiving an independent actuarial valuation showing the plan had an unfunded liability for basic pension benefits of $291 million on December 31, 2008......

The primary reasons for the 2008 unfunded liability of $291 million are the assumption of conservative future investment returns, an expectation of a longer life span for our retirees, and salary increases for our members that were higher than previously expected.
....

The new contribution rates (as a percentage of salary):

Member 10.20% (below YMPE), 11.70% (above YMPE)

Employer 13.33 % (below (YMPE) 14.83 % (above YMPE)

* The YMPE is the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings for the Canada Pension Plan. The YMPE for 2009 is $46,300.

Complete purchases of service before July 1, 2010 to save Purchase of service costs are based on salary and contribution rates. For more information about purchasing service, please see the plan’s website at tpp.pensionsbc.ca.

From the Vancouver sun - can you believe this?

Teachers urged to critique Games; Vancouver BCTF local promotes event called Teaching 2010 Resistance. Vancouver Sun, Thu Oct 15 2009 . Janet Steffenhagen


B.C. teachers are being urged to expand their lessons about the 2010 Olympics beyond government-approved curriculum to teach students about corporate greed, exploitation, misuse of public funds and environmental degradation.

The Vancouver Elementary School Teachers' Association (VESTA) is promoting an event later this month called Teaching 2010 Resistance, which is intended to help teachers raise critical questions about the Olympics.

The event, at Lord Strathmore elementary, is being organized by the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN), which is coordinating anti-Olympic efforts, and Teach 2010, a website that encourages teachers to share resources critical of the Olympics.

The groups say the Games are more than a sporting event.

"The Olympics are not about the human spirit and have little to do with athletic excellence," ORN says on its website. "They are a multi-billion-dollar industry backed by real estate, construction, hotel, tourism and media corporations, and powerful elites working hand in hand with government officials and the International Olympic Committee (IOC)."

VESTA past-president Glen Hansman said his union isn't affiliated with ORN and hasn't taken a position on the Olympics but agreed to advertise the event knowing that teachers have been involved in developing some of the resources. He said the event will be an opportunity for teachers to discuss the Olympics from a different perspective -- considering issues such as homelessness, poverty and the government's decision to spend $500,000 on its 2010 curriculum while also cutting grants for arts groups, school sports programs and school districts.

"I'm glad that there's a group of teachers and community activists who are trying to come up with some [additional] materials that might be useful in a classroom setting," he said in an interview Wednesday.

Patti Bacchus, chair of the Vancouver board of education, said she hopes teachers will take a critical look at the Games and delve into issues such as doping, corporate sponsorship and Olympic-inspired public investments.

Just last week, the Vancouver board discussed the importance of Olympics education rather than boosterism, she said, and decided if students are going to be involved in events, "there has to be an educational component -- it can't just be to provide a cheering section."

Bacchus wouldn't comment on the union's promotion of Teaching 2010 Resistance, saying that's not the board's business. "What they [teachers] do in our classrooms certainly is our business and at this point I've had nothing to indicate they wouldn't do anything but behave as responsible professionals."

Hansman said teachers -- like members of the public -- have mixed views about the Olympics. "Some are very keen on the Olympics being here and the educational opportunities that will create. We have other members who are really concerned about the Olympics . . . and will use this as an educational experience to do some of the critical thinking."

The B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) said it has not taken a position on the Games and is not supporting either pro or anti groups. Unlike its Vancouver local, the BCTF is not promoting the Teaching 2010 Resistance event.

Asked for her response, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid issued a statement: "Freedom of Speech is a fundamental underpinning of our nation and everyone has the right to voice their opinion -- even about the 2010 Winter Games."

New info on BCTF website!

Have your say on your pension!
Full indexing of your pension is not guaranteed. Decisions will be made after plan members are consulted. Over the next two months, the BCTF is looking for input from you, members of the pension plan, to give the Teachers’ Pension Board of Trustees feedback on options that meet the financial needs of both active and retired members of the pension plan. Complete the online survey and read the supporting documents.
http://www.bctf.ca/SalaryAndBenefits.aspx?id=19748

The BCTF Task Force on TTOC Work in BC is seeking submissions from BCTF members.
Referenced on: http://www.bctf.ca/OpportunitiesForMembers.aspx
http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Opportunities/TTOC-call.pdf

Status of Women web page – revised!
The BCTF Status of Women Action Group has developed the content for our revised status of women web page. It includes lesson plans, resources, workshops, and advocacy.
http://www.bctf.ca/SocialJustice.aspx?id=6282

Wal-Mart breaks the labour code?

Wal-Mart's closing of unionized store breached Labour Code, arbitrator finds

By closing its first unionized outlet in North America in 2005 and throwing some 190 employees out of work less than a year after union certification was granted and before a first contract could be achieved, U.S.-based retail giant Wal-Mart violated a prohibition in the Quebec Labour Code against changing "the conditions of employment" of employees after an application for certification had been filed, a Quebec arbitrator has found. The arbitrator held that it did not suffice for Wal-Mart to invoke unspecified "business reasons" for the store closing and the resulting layoffs, without explaining satisfactorily what those reasons were.

The rest of this report is available at: http://www.lancasterhouse.com/

World Teacher's Day - October 5th

The joy of teaching, Lake Country Calendar, Tue Sep 29 2009. (Jim Taylor)

Next Monday, October 5, will be World Teachers' Day.

The United Nations launched the first World Teachers' Day October 5, 1994. It has been largely ignored on the same date every year since then.

And that's tragic. Because if our worldwide civilizations are ever going to drag themselves out of the slough of ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, and general incompetence they're mired in, it will only be through education.

The most stupid thing the Campbell government in B.C. has done, in my opinion, was to pinch pennies on education funding. A school, remarked author Lon Watters, "is a building that has four walls, with tomorrow inside."

Or as business consultant Andy McIntyre put it, "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance!"

(Confession: I filched several of these quotations from Education International, a federation representing 30 million teachers in 172 countries and territories.)

In the explosion of knowledge that has come in the last century, we are increasingly dependent on teachers. Few parents can adequately prepare their children for the modern world. The best that we parents, and grandparents, can do is to foster an attitude towards this mushroom cloud of information. But teaching how to make sense of that cloud, how to sift relevant information from irrelevant, requires professional skills.

Author John Holt - ironically, a proponent of home schooling - commented, "Since we can't know what knowledge will be most needed in the future, it is senseless to try to teach it in advance. Instead, we should try to turn out people who love learning so much that they will be able to learn whatever needs to be learned."

Good teachers instill that love of learning. Bad teachers destroy it. I'm astonished how many people tell me they can't sing, because their Grade One teacher told them to stand at the back and just move their mouths.

They also learn not to raise their hands, not to volunteer, for fear of ridicule - either from the teacher directly, or indirectly from classmates.

Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton has been often ridiculed for opening a novel with the cliché, "It was a dark and stormy night..." But he suggests wisely, "The best teacher is the one who inspires a listener with the wish to teach himself."

Bad teachers tend to value order and discipline, believing themselves to be in control. Mark Twain famously described a classroom as "trying to hold 35 corks under water at the same time."

Good teachers, on the other hand, revel in the chaos that often accompanies spontaneous discovery.

I know I'm coming close to treading on a landmine here, but our current pre- occupation with healthcare strikes me as a lesser concern. As American educator Ernest Leroy Boyer noted, "A poor surgeon hurts one person at a time. A poor teacher hurts thirty."

One final quotation, this one from Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock, The Third Wave, and Powershift: "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."