It’s back to school for Ontario students
Posted September 4, 2012 5:05 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The unofficial end to summer has arrived: Ontario students headed back to school on Tuesday.
Parents and children are preparing lunches, outfits and school supplies for that all-important first day.
“We started doing shopping in July,” mother-of-four Suzy Israel told CityNews.
“We had to get uniforms, school supplies, lunch bags, snacks and lunches for the school.”
Police are asking drivers to pay extra attention in school zones and to keep an eye out for school buses and children.
Meanwhile, teachers across the province are working without a contract after the Liberals introduced back-to-work legislation in August.
However, education assistants now have a contract: Education Minister Laurel Broten announced Friday that an agreement with 3,000 education assistants has been reached.
The new deal includes no salary increases this year and next, a 0.5 per cent pay cut in the form of one unpaid professional development day in the second year of the contract, the elimination of the current retirement gratuity and a restructured short-term sick leave plan.
About 55,000 teachers employed by five boards have signed onto an agreement that includes three unpaid days off and ends the practice of banking sick days that can be cashed out at retirement.
But three other unions representing 191,000 workers oppose the deal.
The bill is expected to pass given that it has the support of the Progressive Conservatives.
The teachers’ unions have said that they will challenge the legislation at the Supreme Court if it passes.
