Students at Leaside High School will have to forgo the flexible hours known as delayed/late start. The change is required because of work action taken by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, according to Principal Jeanette Plonka in a letter to parents. Until further notice the school will follow a uniform day beginning at 8.40 am. and ending at 3 pm. Other schools are making similar adjustments as the OSSTF begins what it has called “strike actions” at 20 boards across Ontario including Toronto. For her part, Education Minister Laurel Broten is threatening to prevent teachers from dropping out of many of their duties. One in particular, the taking of attendance, is seen as an important safety measure. A bargaining bulletin on the OSSTF website says that among other actions, teachers will not attend staff meetings, communicate with parents outside school hours or fill in for absent colleagues The teachers are defending sick day retirement payouts, which the Legislature has voted to eliminate, by arguing the Ontario government offers a more generous goodbye to government employees. The OSSTF has highlighted the government severance packages in its battle to save “retirement gratuities” which allow most teachers and many education support staff workers to cash out up to 200 unused sick days at retirement. The government says the plan, which pays out a maximum of $47,000 to a retiring teacher, must be scaled back because the cost is too high with $1.7 billion in accumulated sick days now on the taxpayers’ tab. Leaside High back to an 8.40 a.m. to 3 p.m. day
by •
Students at Leaside High School will have to forgo the flexible hours known as delayed/late start. The change is required because of work action taken by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation, according to Principal Jeanette Plonka in a letter to parents. Until further notice the school will follow a uniform day beginning at 8.40 am. and ending at 3 pm. Other schools are making similar adjustments as the OSSTF begins what it has called “strike actions” at 20 boards across Ontario including Toronto. For her part, Education Minister Laurel Broten is threatening to prevent teachers from dropping out of many of their duties. One in particular, the taking of attendance, is seen as an important safety measure. A bargaining bulletin on the OSSTF website says that among other actions, teachers will not attend staff meetings, communicate with parents outside school hours or fill in for absent colleagues The teachers are defending sick day retirement payouts, which the Legislature has voted to eliminate, by arguing the Ontario government offers a more generous goodbye to government employees. The OSSTF has highlighted the government severance packages in its battle to save “retirement gratuities” which allow most teachers and many education support staff workers to cash out up to 200 unused sick days at retirement. The government says the plan, which pays out a maximum of $47,000 to a retiring teacher, must be scaled back because the cost is too high with $1.7 billion in accumulated sick days now on the taxpayers’ tab. 
