Provincial Education Reform Consultation – Online Survey Open
Part 3, the online survey, of the Ministry of Education’s Consultation: Education in Ontario is now available. The online survey includes approximately 40 questions that are broken down into general respondent information followed by specific questions about STEM, Job Skills, Testing, Financial Literacy, Cell Phones, Health & Physical Education and the proposed Parents’ Bill of Rights. The questions are provided below so that they can be reviewed before responding online. Individuals must first register by entering an email address and then an email will be sent with a single use link to complete the survey.
Last week, the Ministry of Education announced the schedule of telephone town halls across Ontario that run until the end of November.
The deadline for all parts of the consultation is December 15.
Additional consultation details are available on the Ministry website: https://www.ontario.ca/page/for-the-parents
2018 Municipal and School Board Elections – Preliminary Results
Congratulations to all successful candidates and thank you to all trustees for their dedication to public education. Please see the chart below for an overview of the unofficial results from our 31 member school boards. Results from all four school board/trustee associations can be found on OESC’s centralized School Board Elections website: elections.ontarioschooltrustees.org.
Bill 36, Cannabis Statute Law Amendment Act, 2018
The Ministry of Education invited OPSBA to attend a stakeholder meeting on October 26 to discuss a regulation that will “allow the province to set a distance buffer between private cannabis retail stores and schools.” We have been informed that the regulation will be in place by December 2018. OPSBA President Cathy Abraham informally surveyed school boards via Board of Directors and Chairs about the components for this regulation.
Government’s Cannabis presentation
Bill 48, Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act, 2018
On October 25, 2018, Minister of Education Lisa Thompson introduced Bill 48, Safe and Supportive Classrooms Act. The legislation, if passed, would require teachers to pass a math test before getting licensed and would revoke teaching certificates from teachers disciplined by the profession’s regulatory body for committing sexual abuse against a student or child.
Bill 47, Making Ontario Open for Business Act, 2018
This legislation was introduced on October 23, 2018, by Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Jim Wilson. Wilson said the legislation, if passed, would “broadly repeal certain changes to employment standards and labour relations that the previous government made through Bill 148. This act will also introduce measures to wind down the Ontario College of Trades and address regulations that prevent businesses from hiring as many skilled tradespeople as they need.” The bill also proposes to freeze the minimum wage at $14 per hour for the next two years, and swap the 10 days of annual personal leave workers are currently entitled to — including two paid sick days — for a maximum of eight unpaid days off. Specifically, workers would get up to three sick days, three personal days and two bereavement days, all of which are unpaid.
