OCCASIONAL TEACHERSWelcome to the place to find all the information you need as an occasional teacher in District 7 Bluewater. Click on the topics below.
SMART FIND PROCEDURE
Log in to SF (instructions for accessing SF are found here) Check your SmartFind information to ensure that it is accurate. You will get calls after 6am for work that day. New callouts start again at 4pm and the SmartFind webpage gets new postings starting at 10:30 am and continually updates as VPs post new jobs throughout the day. It is important to customize SmartFind around your schedule and indicate your unavailable dates. Schedule tab --> Unavail dates You can customize the times you are unavailable. For example, you have a dentist appointment Tuesday at 8:30 am but think you can still work period 2 onward. Put in unavailable from 08:30 am to 10:00 am and indicate "call for future assignments". If there is a job for period 2 onwards, SF considers you available for that job. You will still be able to get it. This works for many possibilities. Just make sure your unavailable times do not overlap with class start and end times. There is absolutely NO penalty for doing this. Remember, we only need to work one assignment each year to stay on the Roster. However, by not doing this, the callout system bogs down making unnecessary calls and the Board starts using emergency fill-ins. These are jobs that are lost to our members. The Board also responds by hiring even more teachers to our Roster, thereby diluting the pool and making work even more scarce. If you don't wish to work, just put yourself out of SF for that period of time. If you are on LTO or part contract, you have to let the Board know that you are unavailable for a certain period of time. Contact Josie Becker in HR. josie_becker@bwsdb.on.ca See the Leave of Absence section below. HOW TO REMAIN ON THE OT ROSTER
To remain on the OT Roster you must: 1. Work at least one assignment each year*. This indicates to the Board that you are active and you pay dues to OSSTF ensuring you remain a member. 2. Pay your OCT dues. 3. Submit you Offence Declaration. This is done at the beginning of May each year. *Note: As per the current collective agreement CERTIFICATION
It is important for all OTs to get your certification rating from OSSTF as soon as possible, after you have worked one day for the Board so that union dues will have been paid making you an official OSSTF member. It only affects your earnings while on an LTO or a permanent position but you never know when that daily occasional position can get stretched into an 11th day for which you would then get paid at your grid rate for each day from the start. Click here for the "Time is Money" pamphlet from OSSTF which outlines the process to get your rating. Contact OSSTF directly if you have any problems with your membership number or login to the OSSTF website www.osstf.on.ca If you haven't already done this, do it today! LEAVE OF ABSENCE
You must fill out an official Leave of Absence form for any absences of more than 10 days. Failure to do so can result in your removal from the OT Roster/LTO List. The Board allows you to take a one-year leave from the Roster as long as you work the following year. If you don't work in the second year, you will be removed from the Roster. This applies to daily OTs as well as those on an LTO. If you have a partial contract, you must fill out 2 LoA forms: one for OT and one for TBU. Note: Maternity leave (18 month) is a special exemption. Pre-populated LoA forms can be found on First Class (BEAM) under the penguin icon. Or you may contact the HR Department. HOW TO ACCESS JOB POSTINGS
Go to Office 365, your Board email site in Outlook. Click on the Sharepoint app --> BWDSD Internal Home Site --> Staff Resources (drop down) --> job postings You are looking for Secondary postings open to members of the Occasional Teachers If you are on the LTO List, you are eligible for Round 1 and Round 2 LTO postings. If not, you are only eligible for Round 3 postings. If a contract position is available to OTs, it is open only to those on the LTO List at first before going external to the Board. At that time, it will be offered to those on the OT Roster in priority over external candidates. Please read the eligibility rules in each posting carefully. On-Calls and Supervision
OTs are required to cover previously scheduled on-calls as well as any supervision the teacher has. The on-call or supervision must be adjacent to a period taught. If this is full day work, you will have to do it. If you only worked period A & B and the teacher had an on-call period C, or a supervision 2nd half of lunch, you wouldn't have to do it, but you would have to cover 1st half of lunch. Talk to the VP about it ahead of time. Double on-calls are NOT our requirement nor are the ones given out that day (emergency on-call) For this reason, if you know that the teacher has a prep period A, you still need to go to the school since you may not know if they have an on-call scheduled, particularly if the posting was made that morning. I continue to impress upon the VPs that this information is essential in SmartFind postings since your ability to cover the job may rest upon being able to fit an appointment during a teacher’s prep period. While on an LTO, you will be assigned on-calls pro-rated to the duration and extent of your LTO. You’ll have to do the math! Full 1.0 LTO full semester will be 50% of what the teachers are assigned for the year. A 3-month 0.67 LTO will be: 30% of that number times 67%. BASIC TIPS
Document and leave good notes for the teacher. Think of what you would want to know about if this was your class. Stick to the facts, not opinions. Don’t be afraid to remove a student from class. Call down to the office to let them know the student has been sent. Follow up with the VP after class, at lunch, or after school. You can gain insights that will help you with this student in the future. Remember: You and the VP form part of the disciplinary team. It is NOT career suicide to remove a student from class. Failure to do so could result in an escalation of behaviours or actions and any resulting negative incident can be held against you. Get to know the VPs. They are your information source about students and they are also your reference source when you want to progress to the LTO List. Do not criticize the regular teacher to the students or to other teachers. We are all OSSTF members and a complaint could be raised against you. We are all colleagues working together for the benefit of student learning. If you are called in to a meeting with the administrators, it is informal if it is just a conversation and possibly just a need for clarification. If someone is taking notes, or if you feel that is potentially disciplinary, pause the interview and get another teacher (OSSTF member) to act as witness. You can seek out the TBU branch president in each school. That info should be posted in the staff room. Familiarize yourself ahead of time. If the meeting is disciplinary, they should suggest that you call me, but if they don’t, ask for a meeting to be set up with me at another time. If in doubt, call me. Inform the office if you leave school during lunch or during prep time, or if your assignment is finished before the end of the school day. If you are called in by SmartFind in the morning and will be late due to notification time and distance, inform the VP or someone in the office. Leave a message on the VPs extension as well. They will catch this on their cellphones. Most VPs are reached at ext 526 on the school phone number. WHERE TO FIND HELP
BWDSB is your employer, your supervisor is the VP if you are on daily OT work, your principal is your supervisor if you are on LTO or contract work. 1-800-661-7509 BWDSB main number The IT department deals with Office 365 and login issues 1-866-538-0575 Payroll deals with pay issues – contact the VP if your OT pay is incorrect or something was missed. The VP needs to correct this in SmartFind before Payroll can do anything about it. Refer to the “Certification” info above so you are not getting the wrong pay for LTO work. The onus is on you. SmartFind issues – email sfx@bwdsb.on.ca Address any concerns with your supervisor as they arise. Details get lost with time. My job is to advocate on your behalf if the supervisor/employer does not comply or act within the terms of the collective agreement. Please don’t hesitate to contact me. If you are on contract work, you need to contact the TBU president – Betty Jo Raddin. The OT Roster and the LTO List are properties of the BWDSB. OSSTF does not control this. PAY SCHEDULE AND PAY GRIDS
Daily OT pay Sep 1/18 daily Secondary Teaching rate is 233.82 (219.55 + 4% + 2.5%) Feb 1/19 daily Secondary Teaching rate will be 236.16 (221.75 + 4% + 2.5%) mY osstf
Go to osstf.on.ca Login tab, then register for an OSSTF account. This will allow you to access the Members Only portion of the website. There is lots of information on the website and this is also how we will conduct any voting on contract negotiations in the future. There are free curriculum resources in the Resource Centre such as those I’ve indicated on our OT News page. title 15
|
Chief Negotiator
Paul Scott Treasurer Kathryn Vogan Secretary Gord Cale Members-at-large Diane Hodgson Katie Holmes Samantha Watson 
|
