Medical Documentation 101

More and more, we are hearing from members about how their principals are requesting medical notes to support a recent absence. Your school administration should have no access to ANY medical information about you.

Medical notes and information should only be provided to the Disability Management department at the Education Centre (a department within the Employee Relations department). Any medical information that you provide to Disability Management is kept in a medical file, completely separate from your regular personnel file. Only a few employees who work within the Disability Management department have the right to see this information. Even the superintendent of this department cannot access your medical file.

If your principal or vice-principal requests a medical note to support an absence, you should do the following:

1. Ask for the name of the employee in the Disability Management department that is requesting the note. If a name is not or cannot be provided, do not furnish the medical note to your principal and contact us at the local office to advise us of the request.
2. If a name IS provided, send your medical note directly to that individual , either by fax or courier, marked CONFIDENTIAL. Do NOT provide a copy to your administration.
3. If you have reason to believe that your administration is in possession of medical documentation about you (because you have provided doctor's notes to them in the past) , request that all medical notes be returned to you in a confidential manner (e.g., not stuffed loosely into your mail slot).

Don't forget - early dismissal on Friday!

Only two work days left until the holidays! Don't forget that Friday is one hour early dismissal for everyone - which means you should go home early too!!!

Our local ETFO office will be closed for the two weeks of holidays as of Friday afternoon and we will not be checking messages during that time. The local office will re-open at 8 a.m. on Monday, January 4th, 2010.

The provincial ETFO office will also be closed for the holidays. The Emergency Legal Assistance system will be operational over the holiday period to respond to critical calls only. Non-critical calls will be returned after the holidays.

Disability "Management" - DDSB style!

I'm sure you all received your email from the superintendent last Friday, waxing eloquent about the Board's newest initiative, an "attendance support program". I will post more about this Grinch-y, Scrooge-ish news this week (and via email to members), and why you should ALL respond with your input (but await our instructions on this!), but today's post is about the other arm of the DDSB's sick day management - the Disability Management Program.


Those who have been sick in recent years, either for a few days or weeks or months, or for a scheduled surgery, or even for bed rest prior to delivering a baby, will likely have encountered or been contacted by staff from the Disability Management department. The important thing to remember - they are NOT your friends! The mandate of the disability management staff is to reduce the number of sick days used by employees by having you return to work as quickly as possible. Can't drive to work? The Board will provide a driver. Can't stand up for any length of time? The Board will provide you with a chair. Sometimes their insistence on your return to work is even in contravention of your doctor's orders.


This is a classic case of where calling us, your union, is in YOUR best interests. If you are not feeling well or are feeling very stressed and believe you need time off - call us before you visit your doctor. We can suggest options that you and your doctor may be unaware of and that your doctor could include in a note supporting sick leave. If you are invited to a meeting with disability management staff and federation representation is offered (as they must do) - say YES. We are there to advocate for you, and YOU only. We make sure that your rights are not violated, that your sick leave benefits are honoured, that your doctor's note is heeded and that you are not forced back to work before you are ready. If you are pregnant and you and your doctor don't believe you can work to full term, call us. There have been many instances over the last few years when pregnant members have tried to be "helpful" in paving the way for their replacement to be hired and have signalled some weeks in advance (even just to their principal) that they will be needing time off at the end of their pregnancy- this news quickly makes its way to the DM department, and the teacher is always given a very hard time. Always call us first before making any inquiries about the use of sick leave.


Remember, "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

ETFO Calls for On-line AQ Instructors - Apply by December 18

ETFO's Professional Services department is seeking instructors for summer and fall 2010 online Additional Qualifications courses. Applicants should have extensive experience in course facilitation and online delivery of teacher professional learning. To learn more about the application process, click on the title of today's post to link to ETFO's website.

Teacher Experiences with EQAO Testing

The March issue of ETFO's Voice magazine will examine the issues around EQAO testing. ETFO wants to hear your views about EQAO and your experience in administering the test. To gather this information, they have created a short online questionnaire. Specific experiences and anecdotes are welcome and encouraged. A selection of the responses received will be published in the magazine. To access the survey, click on the title of this post to go to the ETFO website.

Holiday Cheer!

The holidays are upon us - Hanukkah begins this weekend and Christmas Eve is only two weeks away! Amazing how the year just flies by....

Our local executive met last night and we passed a motion to once again support "Operation Christmas Cheer" with a donation of $1000. The provincial executive of ETFO has also made a donation, for $5000. The mandate of this non-profit organization is to deliver grass roots support, cheer, food hampers, grocery gift cards and toys to Ontario picket lines during the holiday season. Currently, an unprecedented number of unionized workers in Ontario (nearly four thousand) are facing the harsh reality of being on the picket line for an extended period of time - ranging from 4 months to more than 3 years. They are on strike against employers that are refusing to bargain or bargaining in bad faith. For more information about this initiative, click on the title of today's post to visit the Operation Christmas Cheer website or visit http://www.operationcheer.com/

Our "Toys from Teachers" toy drive has wrapped up this week and we thank our members for another generous year! All donations have been delivered to the Salvation Army for distribution to families throughout the Durham Region. Your contributions are greatly appreciated and have helped make the holidays brighter for many children!

One Salary Myth Dispelled

We often hear teachers refer to their "summer pay" and sometimes teachers going off on a maternity leave mid-year ask us if they will receive their "Christmas pay" or "March break pay" if they depart just prior to these dates. Time to dispel these salary myths.... the board does not pay you to be on holidays - it's sad, but true!

The school year calendar is 194 days in length. Teachers are paid for only those 194 days that they work - teaching days and PA days. While the salary schedule sees us paid every two weeks (4% of our salary at each pay), and this sometimes falls during a holiday, it doesn't mean that we are paid for the days we are not working.

QECO and your category rating

QECO (the Qualifications Evaluation Council of Ontario) was created 40 years ago by OECTA, ETFO and AEFO (three of the four teacher unions in Ontario) to provide an equitable evaluation plan for teacher salary recognition based solely on specific academic criteria. The QECO evaluation of degree holding teachers who are members of one of the above-mentioned affiliates can result in one of four category placements: Category A1 through Category A4. These category placements will determine your rate of salary for your entire teaching career.

Once an eligible teacher is evaluated, a Statement of Evaluation is issued which must be submitted to the school board for appropriate salary category placement. All university degree-holding teachers must be evaluated by QECO to be considered for a placement beyond Category A1.

If you are not yet at Category A4:

Changes over time occur with the ongoing recognition of new acceptable academic institutions, both domestic and abroad; changes that affect the acceptability of some course providers; changes with the increase in Additional Qualification course providers; and some legislative changes that can all have an influence on teachers’ upgrading routes.

QECO strongly urges all who have not yet reached Category A4 to formally apply for upgrading advice or for re-evaluation on a yearly basis to ensure they are following the most expedient route to a higher category. This advice is particularly important to teachers whose academic qualifications were obtained outside of Ontario.

Every time you take a new university course or additional or basic qualification course, you should apply to QECO for re-evaluation. The onus is on YOU to provide this information to QECO - it is NOT provided to QECO by the course providers.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, you must apply to QECO in a timely fashion and provide proof of this application to the Durham District school board.

• In order to receive a salary adjustment as of September 1st, ALL course work must be completed before the beginning of school in September, and your new Statement of Evaluation MUST be provided to the Board by the last teaching day in December. If it is delayed, you MUST let the Board know this prior to the last teaching day in December.
• In order to receive a salary adjustment as of January 1st, ALL course work must be completed before December 31, and your new Statement of Evaluation MUST be provided to the Board by May 31st. If it is delayed, you MUST let the Board know this prior to May 31st.

For more information about QECO, click on the title of today's post to access information from ETFO, or visit the QECO website at www.qeco.on.ca

Local Event Reminder

Just two quick reminders for today's post!

1. Our "Toys from Teachers" toy drive pick up will begin next week so if your school is participating and you haven't let us know this yet, please give us a call to ensure that we schedule a pick-up at your worksite. We appreciate any and all donations!!


2. The registration deadline for the Special Education Part 1 AQ closes on Monday, December 14th. If you are interested in taking this course, please be sure to register by this date!! The course will take place on Thursday evenings between January and June, with two Saturday sessions in January and April. The course cost is a steal of a deal at only $650, plus you can apply for $250 in PD funding to help offset this cost (you must not have applied for funding this school year or last to be eligible). For more information about the Special Education AQ course, click on this earlier post: http://etfodurham.blogspot.com/2009/11/special-education-aq-comes-to-durham.html and for more information about our local PD fund, click on this earlier post: http://etfodurham.blogspot.com/2009/10/happy-friday.html

Wishing you productive parent interviews this evening and tomorrow!!

This is what happens when you place too much importance on test scores: A Cautionary Tale from South of the Border

Today's blog post is about standardized testing and this New York Times article from last week illustrates the dangers of placing too much emphasis on this one narrow measure of student achievement. Over the past several years, we have witnessed the data-driven frenzy that has seized the Ministry of Education in their drive to deliver on the election promise of 75% of students scoring at Level 3 or higher on the EQAO tests. The almost immediate trickle-down effect this has had on school boards and schools has been very obvious, and this, in turn, has impacted on teachers' professional practice.

Just south of the border, in the neighbouring state of New York, the use of test scores to determine bonus pay, who gets laid off, which schools get closed for poor performance, etc., shows the extreme to which test scores can become the tail wagging the dog. A very interesting read, indeed (click on the link below, or on the title of today's post):

Mayor Says Student Scores Will Factor Into Teacher Tenure
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/26/education/26teachers.html?emc=eta1

Here are the first two paragraphs from the above article...

"WASHINGTON — Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said on Wednesday that New York City public schools would immediately begin to use student test scores as a factor in deciding which teachers earn tenure, a proposal that has been bitterly opposed by the teachers’ union and criticized as putting too much weight on standardized exams.
The city already uses test scores in evaluating the system: to determine teacher and principal bonus pay, to assign the A through F letter grades that schools receive, and to decide which schools are shut down for poor performance. The mayor is now putting even more weight behind those scores by using them to decide which teachers should stay and which should go."