education

Tuesday March 2, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Tuesday March 2, 2016 Winter storm Approaches A winter storm is expected to hit Hamilton later this afternoon and drop up to 30 cm snow overnight. Blowing snow, powered by wind gusts of up to 70 km/h/, will create treacherous driving conditions as visibility drops to zero at times. The snow is expected to begin during the Tuesday evening commute and intensify later tonight. Environment Canada suggests postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve. The forecast suggests the storm will have moved out of the area by midday Wednesday. In anticipation of the worst storm of the winter so far, evening classes are cancelled at McMaster University, Mohawk College and the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board. McMaster University will close at 4:30 p.m. today. Mohawk will close at 4 p.m. today, with all evening classes at the Fennell, Stoney Creek and IAHS campuses cancelled. College officials say a decision will be made by 5:30 a.m. tomorrow about whether Mohawk will remain closed or reopen Wednesday. All Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board facilities will close at 6 p.m. tonight. All meetings, permits, continuing education courses, night school and ESL adult programs are cancelled. As part of that, the HWDSB senior elementary basketball championship scheduled for Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School for Tuesday evening has been postponed. Further information regarding the rescheduling of the event will be available on www.hwdsb.on.ca/athletics www.hwdsb.on.ca/athletics as well as Twitter when available. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) http://www.thespec.com/news-story/6370366-winter-storm-mac-mohawk-and-hamilton-wentworth-school-classes-cancelled-tonight/ Hamilton, Ontario, Winter, snow, storm, blizzard, cancellation, snow day, weather, lion, board, education

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 2, 2016

Winter storm Approaches

A winter storm is expected to hit Hamilton later this afternoon and drop up to 30 cm snow overnight.

Thursday, February 5, 2015Blowing snow, powered by wind gusts of up to 70 km/h/, will create treacherous driving conditions as visibility drops to zero at times.

The snow is expected to begin during the Tuesday evening commute and intensify later tonight.

Environment Canada suggests postponing non-essential travel until conditions improve.

The forecast suggests the storm will have moved out of the area by midday Wednesday.

In anticipation of the worst storm of the winter so far, evening classes are cancelled at McMaster University, Mohawk College and the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board.

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday March 11, 2008 McHattie is hot on snow removal If you've had it up to here with shovelling snow, Councillor Brian McHattie has an easy-on-the-back solution. The Ward 1 councillor is proposing hiring contractors to clear sidewalks outside people's homes next winter. If McHattie gets enough support from his west-end constituents, he'll ask city council to approve adding the snow removal cost toÊproperty owners' tax bills. After discussing it with city staff, McHattie estimates it will cost Ward 1 residents $28 to $31 per household for the first year of service. In the second year of a presumed five-year contract, the cost would fall to around $19 to $22 per year. It would be more expensive the first year because the private contractor would likely have to buy specialized plows. The work would be contracted out because the city apparently doesn't have the resources to take on the job itself. Right now, McHattie's proposal is focused only on his own ward. But he says there's nothing stopping other councillors looking at the same service for their area. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) Canada, sidewalk, snow, winter, shovelling, habits, bylaw, civility, shovel

Tuesday March 11, 2008

McMaster University will close at 4:30 p.m. today. Mohawk will close at 4 p.m. today, with all evening classes at the Fennell, Stoney Creek and IAHS campuses cancelled.

College officials say a decision will be made by 5:30 a.m. tomorrow about whether Mohawk will remain closed or reopen Wednesday.

All Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board facilities will close at 6 p.m. tonight. All meetings, permits, continuing education courses, night school and ESL adult programs are cancelled.

As part of that, the HWDSB senior elementary basketball championship scheduled for Nora Frances Henderson Secondary School for Tuesday evening has been postponed. Further information regarding the rescheduling of the event will be available on its website as well as Twitter when available. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Thursday September 10, 2015

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Thursday September 10, 2015 Half of one Toronto schoolÕs students kept home to protest new sex-ed Parents in one Toronto community have made good on their threat to keep their children at home on the first day of school to protest the provinceÕs new sex-ed curriculum, which they say is not age appropriate. At Thorncliffe Park, where nearly all of its Grade 1 to 5 students were pulled from class during a protest staged by parents in the spring, almost half of the schoolÕs population was absent Tuesday, said a spokesman for the Toronto District School Board. Julie Lalonde was stalked by an ex-boyfriend for years. One note he left read: ÒI will always love you, you have no choice.Ó Complaints from parents have ranged from a lack of consultation with them to not wanting their kids to be taught about same-sex relationships and different gender identities. Education Minister Liz Sandals urged parents who are opposed to the curriculum to first talk to teachers and principals because there is Òa lot of misinformationÓ being circulated, but each school board does have a policy on withdrawing students from particular classes. However, she said, the majority of the feedback she has received has been positive. ÒI have never in my life been just stopped on the street by strangers so often (who) said, ÔThank you for doing this. Hang in there. We want this program.ÒÕ Premier Kathleen Wynne said in addition to thousands of school council chairs, 70 health organizations and parent groups were consulted in crafting the new curriculum, which had not been updated since 1998. ÒThis is the most widely consulted upon curriculum in the history of the province,Ó she said Tuesday. ÒWhen we write curriculum...on geography or social studies or mathematics, that kind of consultation does not happen because thatÕs not how curriculum has been historically written in the province. We felt there was a need to have a broader

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday September 10, 2015

Half of one Toronto school’s students kept home to protest new sex-ed

Parents in one Toronto community have made good on their threat to keep their children at home on the first day of school to protest the province’s new sex-ed curriculum, which they say is not age appropriate.

Thursday, February 26, 2015At Thorncliffe Park, where nearly all of its Grade 1 to 5 students were pulled from class during a protest staged by parents in the spring, almost half of the school’s population was absent Tuesday, said a spokesman for the Toronto District School Board.

Julie Lalonde was stalked by an ex-boyfriend for years. One note he left read: “I will always love you, you have no choice.”

Complaints from parents have ranged from a lack of consultation with them to not wanting their kids to be taught about same-sex relationships and different gender identities.

Education Minister Liz Sandals urged parents who are opposed to the curriculum to first talk to teachers and principals because there is “a lot of misinformation” being circulated, but each school board does have a policy on withdrawing students from particular classes.

However, she said, the majority of the feedback she has received has been positive.

“I have never in my life been just stopped on the street by strangers so often (who) said, ‘Thank you for doing this. Hang in there. We want this program.“’

Premier Kathleen Wynne said in addition to thousands of school council chairs, 70 health organizations and parent groups were consulted in crafting the new curriculum, which had not been updated since 1998.

“This is the most widely consulted upon curriculum in the history of the province,” she said Tuesday.

“When we write curriculum…on geography or social studies or mathematics, that kind of consultation does not happen because that’s not how curriculum has been historically written in the province. We felt there was a need to have a broader consultation with parents on this curriculum.”

Progressive Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton, who has been a staunch opponent of the curriculum, is urging Wynne to shelve the document and start over by consulting parents.

The party’s new leader, Patrick Brown, notably did not broach the issue in his statement marking the first day of school. He said last week he wants to “make sure parents have a say on how much and when.”

In the spring Sandals suggested Conservative groups were behind some of the opposition and now there are Conservative candidates campaigning in the federal election on sex-ed opposition.

“If there’s one group of people we admit we have not consulted with in a thorough sort of way, it would be federal Conservative candidates, I admit,” she said. (Source: Globe & Mail)

Thursday July 30, 2015

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator -

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 30, 2015

Liz Sandals says talks with Ontario teachers will resume

Education Minister Liz Sandals says talks with Ontario’s teachers’ unions will resume following a meeting last week between Premier Kathleen Wynne, union leaders and public school board representatives.

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday May 6, 2015 Ontario elementary teachers plan job action Monday OntarioÕs 73,000 public elementary teachers will begin job action on Monday, when they are in a legal strike position. While a strike is not anticipated Ñ local union districts have been given details about a work-to-rule Ñ it remains one of the options available, says Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary TeachersÕ Federation of Ontario. In a statement released Tuesday morning, ETFO said its members would be taking unspecified Òcentral strike actionÓ in 32 school boards across the province Monday. According to an ETFO bulletin obtained by the Star, titled ÒStrike Protocol: Work-to-Rule Ñ Phase 1,Ó and sent out to its Toronto members late Monday night, teachers will not take part in any EQAO (standardized testing), write report cards, fill in for absent principals or Òconduct any reading, writing or mathematics assessments other than those that the teacher deems necessary to report on student progress.Ó Hammond has told the Star that the recent offer on the table from the government and the school boardsÕ association was ÒoffensiveÓ and contained concessions the union would not consider. He said if the concessions remained, the union would be Òlooking at all the options.Ó ÒWe are hoping on, or prior to, May 10 that we get substantial movement at the table and we wonÕt have to move in a direction nobody wants to move in,Ó he has previously said. While talks have continued with the help of a mediator, they recently broke off. A union spokesperson said Monday that ÒETFO is eagerly awaiting a call from the government that it, and the Ontario Public School BoardsÕ Association, are ready to engage in meaningful and substantive bargaining.Ó ETFO is the countryÕs largest teacher union. A strike or job action would affect more than 817,000 elementary school students across the province. (Source: Toronto Star) http://www.thestar.co

Wednesday May 6, 2015

Sandals calls it a very positive meeting and says the unions “are committed” to getting back to the table in August and reaching new contracts before classes begin Sept. 8.

Representatives from four public teacher unions flew to Toronto from Ottawa for a morning to meeting with Wynne and Sandals. All sides described the meeting as generally positive but it wrapped up in less than an hour with no firm dates set for new bargaining sessions.

“It was a cordial discussion,” said Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario President Sam Hammond. He added that “we need to have confirmed dates,” for new talks and said “we have some issues that we need to have taken off the table.”

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Tuesday May 26, 2015 Wynne Government imposes back-to-work legislation on striking teachers The Ontario government will be tabling back-to-work legislation today for striking secondary school teachers, but since New Democrats won't be supporting it, students will be kept from class a few more days. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says her party won't support the Liberals' motion for unanimous consent to get it passed today, but the government could use its majority to pass it by Thursday. That would mean more than 70,000 students in the Sudbury-area Rainbow District, Peel Region and Durham Region, who have been kept from class for up to five weeks, would return to school on Friday at the earliest. The back-to-work legislation is being introduced after the Education Relations Commission ruled that strikes by high school teachers in three boards are putting students' school years in jeopardy. Education Minister Liz Sandals says she respects the collective bargaining process, but it's important to get kids back to class to complete their school years. While the striking secondary teachers in three boards are set to be legislated back to work, their central union said this weekend that talks with the provincial government have reached an impasse. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation plans to apply to the provincial labour ministry for conciliation Ñ the teachers must first use the government third-party assistance to try to reach a contract before they can take provincewide strike action. The Ontario Labour Relations Board had also been set to rule on whether the three local strikes were illegal. This is the first round of negotiations under a new bargaining system the Liberal government introduced last year, separating the process into local and central talks. The school boards argued that the three local strikes were really on central issues such as class sizes. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

Tuesday May 26, 2015

Paul Elliott, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said he “didn’t hear anything that’s changed anyone’s opinion or position,” during Friday’s meeting but agrees it was a positive step to hear from the premier.

Sandals also spoke of a positive tone following the 40-minute meeting.

“This wasn’t about negotiating, it was about how we move forward,” she told reporters. “We need to be getting back to the bargaining table during August.”

No talks are currently scheduled for the three largest teachers unions and English-language school boards.

The government has said there is no new money for teacher compensation. That, along with teachers’ demands for limits on class sizes, are among the major sticking point in negotiations. (Source: CBC News)

2015-08-03_Star

Thursday June 25, 2015

Thursday June 25, 2015By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday June 25, 2015

Ontario teachers gearing up for fall job action

Ontario’s teacher unions say work-to-rule, followed by one-day or rotating strikes, will happen this fall if no collective agreements are worked out between now and the start of school.

Leaders of the four teacher unions — representing public elementary and secondary teachers, Catholic and French — met Thursday night in downtown Toronto to map out possible co-ordinated job action, as all are expected to be in strike position by September.

James Ryan, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, said that while final details have to be worked out with his union executive, a work-to-rule is likely to start off any job action and escalate from there.

He also warned there’s not a lot of time to reach deals because bargaining will be slow come summer.

“Bargaining all summer is highly unlikely,” he said, citing already booked vacations for staff on all sides at the bargaining table. “Could we be negotiating part of the summer? Yes. The entire summer? No.”

That’s because “there’s a dead time in the summer that probably stretches from about mid-July to mid-August — that’s when the education world goes dead for about a month.

“But we are committed to negotiate for the rest of June, and if we were close to an agreement, we certainly would be willing to roll up our sleeves in early July.”

But without intervention from Education Minister Liz Sandals — who has said negotiations could stretch into the summer — Ryan said he has little hope of either the government or school boards removing current proposals off the table.

Under new legislation, the unions, school boards and government negotiate costly items such as class size and salary, leaving union locals and individual school boards to hammer out items such as teacher performance reviews or job transfers.

No deals have been signed anywhere in the province. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation recently took three boards out on strike, only to have the strikes ruled illegal because they were over central items — namely class size.

Ryan said the union heads have been meeting regularly during the past year, to discuss any progress with the new bargaining process and any possible job actions.

He said issues like class sizes, use of prep time and hiring regulations are common to all. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Wednesday May 6, 2015

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday May 6, 2015 Ontario elementary teachers plan job action Monday OntarioÕs 73,000 public elementary teachers will begin job action on Monday, when they are in a legal strike position. While a strike is not anticipated Ñ local union districts have been given details about a work-to-rule Ñ it remains one of the options available, says Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary TeachersÕ Federation of Ontario. In a statement released Tuesday morning, ETFO said its members would be taking unspecified Òcentral strike actionÓ in 32 school boards across the province Monday. According to an ETFO bulletin obtained by the Star, titled ÒStrike Protocol: Work-to-Rule Ñ Phase 1,Ó and sent out to its Toronto members late Monday night, teachers will not take part in any EQAO (standardized testing), write report cards, fill in for absent principals or Òconduct any reading, writing or mathematics assessments other than those that the teacher deems necessary to report on student progress.Ó Hammond has told the Star that the recent offer on the table from the government and the school boardsÕ association was ÒoffensiveÓ and contained concessions the union would not consider. He said if the concessions remained, the union would be Òlooking at all the options.Ó ÒWe are hoping on, or prior to, May 10 that we get substantial movement at the table and we wonÕt have to move in a direction nobody wants to move in,Ó he has previously said. While talks have continued with the help of a mediator, they recently broke off. A union spokesperson said Monday that ÒETFO is eagerly awaiting a call from the government that it, and the Ontario Public School BoardsÕ Association, are ready to engage in meaningful and substantive bargaining.Ó ETFO is the countryÕs largest teacher union. A strike or job action would affect more than 817,000 elementary school students across the province. (Source: Toronto Star) http://www.thestar.co

Editorial cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday May 6, 2015

Ontario elementary teachers plan job action Monday

Ontario’s 73,000 public elementary teachers will begin job action on Monday, when they are in a legal strike position.

While a strike is not anticipated — local union districts have been given details about a work-to-rule — it remains one of the options available, says Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario.

In a statement released Tuesday morning, ETFO said its members would be taking unspecified “central strike action” in 32 school boards across the province Monday.

According to an ETFO bulletin obtained by the Star, titled “Strike Protocol: Work-to-Rule — Phase 1,” and sent out to its Toronto members late Monday night, teachers will not take part in any EQAO (standardized testing), write report cards, fill in for absent principals or “conduct any reading, writing or mathematics assessments other than those that the teacher deems necessary to report on student progress.”

Hammond has told the Star that the recent offer on the table from the government and the school boards’ association was “offensive” and contained concessions the union would not consider.

He said if the concessions remained, the union would be “looking at all the options.”

“We are hoping on, or prior to, May 10 that we get substantial movement at the table and we won’t have to move in a direction nobody wants to move in,” he has previously said.

While talks have continued with the help of a mediator, they recently broke off. A union spokesperson said Monday that “ETFO is eagerly awaiting a call from the government that it, and the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association, are ready to engage in meaningful and substantive bargaining.”

ETFO is the country’s largest teacher union. A strike or job action would affect more than 817,000 elementary school students across the province. (Source: Toronto Star)