OCDSB Labour Relations Update

Information about

The preparation of report cards for elementary students is a task that is normally shared between 3,000 elementary teachers and approximately 160 principals and vice principals. An elementary report card has up to 28 data fields for mark entry per student. There are approximately 48,000 elementary students in the school district. Most students have more than one teacher, so several teachers may be involved in mark entry for an individual student. When teachers enter marks, they add any corresponding information about program modifications or other details unique to the individual student.

The school district uses a data system for mark entry and report card production which not only facilitates production, but also ensures that the data is linked to each student’s personal Ontario Education Number (OEN) – this ensures accuracy, security and confidentiality of this sensitive information. ** If the marks have been submitted, why can’t they be input? ** Principals will receive marks from teachers, but at this point it is unclear what format the information will be received in. It is unlikely to come in a standard template and it is likely that it will contain information for multiple students on one page. In addition, each student has more than one teacher, so there will be multiple data sources. Before the information could be input, it would have to be sorted and matched to the individual student number to ensure accuracy. There are 48,000 elementary students and 28 data fields – a total of 1.34 million data fields to complete. Over the next week, we will have a better sense of how the information has been submitted and what is required to properly sort it and ensure it is properly identified by student name and student number. ** Can I call the principal to get the marks? ** In light of the volume of information and the uncertainty about how it will be submitted, we have not yet been able to establish an easy methodology for principals to share information with parents. This week, we will have a better sense of how the information is being submitted and how easily it can be sorted. As a result, the classro‎om teacher remains the best point of contact for parents as he or she is the person with the most knowledge about your child’s progress. ** Why is the school district completing report cards for grade 8 students? ** Grade 8 is an important transition year for students as they move from elementary school to secondary school. Students, parents and teachers have to make decisions about courses and program pathways for students. The report card will help to inform these decisions.

As a result, the district identified the preparation of report cards for grade 8 students as a priority and is working with principals, vice principals and other non-union staff to input report card data for the 4562 grade 8 students in the school district. ** Why doesn’t the school district reassign the work or outsource it? ** This is a legal strike action by teachers. The work cannot be reassigned to members of other bargaining units and it cannot be assigned to parent volunteers. It can be undertaken by principals, managers and other non-unionized staff.

The district has carefully considered all of the work that has to be undertaken as a result of the strike action and prioritized that work as follows:

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inputting of grade 12 marks to allow graduation ceremonies and post secondary applications to proceed;

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contacting secondary students who failed a course prior to the deadline for summer school applications;

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preparing report cards for students in grades 9-11;

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preparing report cards for students in grade 8;

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preparing letters of promotion for JK-7 students; and

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Filing of documentation in the Ontario Student Record.

** Why prepare secondary report cards and not elementary ** Secondary school is a credit based system. Students must attain a certain number of credits in order to graduate and some credits are pre-requisites to other courses. As a result, the report card is a key record for documenting credit accumulation.

A secondary report card has 4 data fields per term that require completion. There 24,000 secondary students in the district for a total of 96,000 data fields for completion. ** What will go in my child’s student record? ** The school district will have a permanent record - there is an Ontario Student Record for every student.  The Letter of Promotion meets the board’s legal obligations and will be filed in the OSR. All other materials which are required in the OSR will also be completed and filed. The individual marks submitted by teachers will also be filed and retained in accordance with the OSR guideline. ** Director’s Webpage ** There have been many questions raised about the OCDSB decision to issue Letters of Promotion for students in JK to grade 7 in place of report cards. This was a very difficult decision and one that was made with careful consideration of the facts, the volume of work, and the prioritization of that work.

The OCDSB is one of only two school districts where both elementary and secondary teachers are involved in legal strike action. Some districts experienced a full withdrawal of service at the secondary level. Fortunately, we have only had to deal with a partial withdrawal of service, which has been good for student learning, but it creates a false expectation of “business as usual”. That cannot be the case when 4600 teachers withdraw some administrative duties; that work falls to the 239 principals and vice principals in our schools.

As part of the strike action, teachers were directed by their unions not to perform the following tasks:

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Report card comments – teachers will submit marks only, no comments;

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Report card data entry – teachers will submit marks, but will not enter the marks in our data system;

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Template for mark submission – teachers will not use a template or common format for the submission of marks which would facilitate inputting of data and/or communication with parents;

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Filing of Student Records – elementary teachers will not file required documentation into the Ontario Student Record (OSR), including report cards, French minutes of instruction, Individual Education Plans (IEPs); and

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Meetings/Professional activity days – teachers will not meet with principals to discuss student progress; no  parent interviews to discuss student progress; no professional learning or training arranged by the principal or district; no completion of O‎SRs; only self-directed activities.

This is a considerable amount of work which can’t be reassigned to other unionized employees, and these other unions will not support the hiring of casual employees to do the work. In addition the Ministry has determined that no additional funds will be provided to school districts to cover the cost of this work, which we estimate to be in excess of $500,000. As a result, the school district had to make some decisions about how to prioritize the work that can be accomplished by the 239 principals and vice principals and by the union exempt staff who are providing additional central support to schools during this challenging time. ** So, what work are we doing? **

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Grade 12 Graduation Ceremonies – We wanted to ensure that all schools could proceed with grade 12 graduation ceremonies. To make this happen, we are relying on principals, vice principals and other union exempt staff to put aside all other duties and assist with the mark entry for grade 12 students. There are two days between exams and graduation ceremonies.

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Grade 12 Post Secondary Mark Submission – All grade 12 final marks must be submitted for post-secondary applications no later than July 3 to enable students to meet their entrance requirements for college and university. We will meet this requirement.

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Course Failures in Grades 9 to 12 - Secondary teachers and guidance counselors have been directed by their union not to be communicating with students and parents.‎ Principals and Vice Principals will contact every student (and the parent) who has failed a course to allow for application to summer school that begins on July 2. Our priority will be to notify students in those courses which are offered in summer school followed by all other courses.

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Report Cards Grades 9 to 11 - are required to ensure students have completed courses in a grade before entering the subsequent course in the next grade. Principals, vice principals and/or other union exempt staff will input these final marks. There are 94,000 data fields of marks for secondary schools in the OCDSB.

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Report Cards for Grade 8s - are important to students and parents as they make course choices entering into secondary school. Principals, vice principals and/or union exempt staff will ‎input

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these final marks and generate report cards for grade 8 students. There are 28 data fields on an elementary report card – for grade 8 alone this represents 127,736 fields of data entry.

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Letters of Promotion for JK to Grade 7: this legal document will be prepared centrally and signed by the school principal. Principals and vice principals will send the letters home to parents.

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Filing Ontario Student Record Documentation (OSRs) - principals, vice principals and/or central support  will ensure that all legal documents are filed ‎in the OSR and will transfer OSRs for students who are moving to another school. There are 48,000 OSRs at the elementary level.

Our preference would be to issue report cards for all students, but the task of inputting another 1.3 million fields of data to generate report cards for students in JK to grade 7 is beyond our capacity at this time.

We understand that parents and students want access to information about marks. We know that teachers have access to that information. Unfortunately, because we don’t know what format that information will be in when principals receive it, we don’t know how easily it will be to share it with parents. Over the course of this week, all elementary marks should be submitted to principals. We will be working with principals to sort through that information and to develop strategies to support the sharing of that information if possible. Your patience as we work through this situation is greatly appreciated.

We understand that there are many questions and we’ve been trying to answer those questions as best we can. I encourage you to read our FAQ’s. We remain committed to providing the most up to date information about strike action.