INBOX
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Happy New Year! By now you are settled back into your classrooms following what was hopefully a restful and joyous Christmas season. We have entered what is likely the busiest season at the Provincial Office, as planning and preparation for the upcoming Annual General Meeting (AGM) is well underway. It always strikes me as a miracle of sorts that our 63-person provincial staff is able to ensure the ongoing work of our 45,000-member Association – that’s everything from contract negotiations, grievances, arbitrations, government relations and public affairs, counseling members, Ontario College of Teachers relations, managing Children’s Aid Society cases, and the list goes on – all while planning and executing our three-day, 800-person AGM each year. Every year, members from across the province take time out of their March Break to execute their democratic rights and fulfil key duties of our Association. Delegates spend three full days discussing, debating, and voting on policies, initiatives, goals, and directives. This year’s AGM, in particular, will be integral to the future of OECTA. You know from my messages, as well as the General Secretary’s feature in the last issue of @OECTA, that we are in a financially vulnerable situation that has led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in cuts to member services, leaving our publicly funded Catholic education system open to further threats. It is my hope that when delegates come together at the upcoming AGM, they will express their democratic voices and rights to adequately and appropriately fund this Association. In line with our financial needs and based on the advice of OECTA’s Finance Committee, the Provincial Executive has put forward a resolution to the AGM seeking an increase to our current membership fee that will bring it from $1,000 to $1,097. As part of this proposed fee increase, the variable fee of 0.13 per cent of grid salary would continue to be directed to the Reserve Fund, as well as 0.12 per cent of grid salary to the Membership Protection Fund. It is, however, important to note that this proposed fee increase does not even begin to restore any of the cuts that have been made over the course of the past year. It will simply aid in addressing the current deficit in the Association’s General Fund, as well as the longer-term liabilities of the Association – both of which we are financially responsible to adequately fund. I am grateful to the members of the Provincial Executive and the many local leaders who have been advocating for OECTA’s financial needs over the course of the past several months, and I am proud of the positive momentum we are building. I ask that in the lead-up to AGM, all members continue to keep the financial needs of OECTA, and our values and goals as Catholic teachers, at the heart of our discussions. I look forward to meeting with many of you at the upcoming AGM. And to all those not in attendance, I wish you a safe and deserving March Break.
Michelle Despault Editor Adam Lemieux Associate Editor Mark Tagliaferri Writer/Researcher Fernanda Monteiro Production Anna Anezyris Advertising EDITORIAL BOARD Ann Hawkins President Liz Stuart First Vice-President Marshall Jarvis General Secretary David Church Deputy General Secretary Carley Desjardins Executive Resource Assistant
@OECTA is published five times during the school year. Opinions and ideas expressed in @OECTA are not necessarily those of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association. @OECTA is a member of the Canadian Educational Press Association, and the Canadian Association of Labour Media. Return undelivered Canadian addresses to: Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, 65 St. Clair Avenue East, Toronto, ON M4T 2Y8 PHONE 416-925-2493 TOLL-FREE 1-800-268-7230 FAX 416-925-7764 catholicteachers.ca Publication Mail Agreement No. 0040062510 Account No. 0001681016
Cover: Students at St. Brendan CES in Stouffville.
4
@ OECTA
| FEBRUARY 2017