TDSB and secondary school teachers reach tentative local agreement
by News staff
Toronto District School Board building. (CITYNEWS/FILE)
The Toronto District School Board has reached a tentative agreement with the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation District 12.
The union represents approximately 5,000 secondary teachers within the board.
Details of the agreement have not been made public ahead of it’s ratification.
The two sides also recently reached an agreement for Professional Support Services Personnel for District 12.
A“I am very pleased to learn of a second tentative agreement in one month as we continue to work to ensure increased labour stability at the TDSB,” read a statement from the TDSB Chair Alexander Brown. “I look forward to building on this momentum with our remaining union partners.”
The announcement of the return to in-person learning in the city came Thursday from Dr. Janet DeMille, the medical officer of health for the Thunder Bay District Health Unit (TBDHU), who credited an improvement in the number and rate of COVID-19 cases in the district in recent weeks.
Teacher unions worry about safety
But the decision to return to in-person learning came against the recommendation of the teachers union.
Seeley said he has been advocating for schools to remain virtual at least until all education staff in Thunder Bay are vaccinated, with the goal of protecting them against COVID-19 variants, which reports suggest are more virulent and more deadly.
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School board administrators are still considering the fallout from the government postponement of March break.
Education minister Stephen Lecce announced Thursday that a one-week break for public schools in the province was being pushed back to April 12-16 from its original slot on the calendar of March 15-19.
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Try refreshing your browser, or March break postponement evokes outrage, resignation Back to video
Lecce said he was following the advice of Ontario’s health officials amid fears that a week off in March would lead to a spike in youth-related COVID-19 cases.
The plan, suggested as a possibility by Ontario's education minister, fails to recognize the stress teachers, education workers and staff are under during the pandemic, say ETFO's Mike Judge and OSSTF's Rich Seeley.