Earlier this year, the District served the STA notice under Section 54 of the Labour Relations Code that they wanted to make some IST positions school-based rather than district-based. The STA held several meetings with the district to discuss a transition plan, and on Monday, March 7th, we reached a settlement with the district with the assistance of a Mediator from the Labour Relations Board. This agreement will impact the post-and-fill/placement process for a wide majority of our current IST teachers.
Here is a brief summary of what was covered in the IST Town Hall on March 10th. You can find the new IST School-Based Transition Plan Agreement:
Process of Negotiations
- The District served the STA with notice under Section 54 of the Labour Relations Code that they wanted to change the post-and-fill/placement process for ISTs.
- The District’s plan was to convert some IST positions to school-based positions, rather than district-based
- The STA and the District met 4 times to negotiate a transition plan, and exchanged proposals, but were not able to reach an agreement. Some of the STA’s goals in the negotiation were to minimize disruption within the IST department, protect ISTs from being replaced by other teachers, and to mitigate the impact of this transition on IST teachers and schools.
- The STA filed a Labour Relations Board request for a Mediator to assist us in reaching a settlement, knowing that if we didn’t reach a settlement, the transition would have significant impact on IST teachers and schools.
- We reached a mediated Agreement on Monday, March 7th.
Summary of Agreement: Please read the full agreement for details
- Where a school has 1.3 or greater projected FTE for IST, a 1.0 FTE IST position at the school will be re-categorized as School-Based instead of District-Based.
- Some ISTs will be able to be “reassigned” into that school-based position without having to post into it. Please see #5 of the agreement for details on this.
- All other 1.0 School-Based IST positions will be posted in Round 2. There will be no internal reassignments from the school into the IST position prior to it being posted.
- Anyone who is a qualified IST teacher can apply for the postings.
- Anyone currently in the IST District pool who is does not post into a School-Based position in Round 2 will stay in the District Pool.
Next Steps for IST Teachers:
- If you think you meet the criteria outlined in clause 5 of the agreement (to stay at your school without having to post into it), please discuss with your principal. If there is a disagreement, please contact Anne or Joanna at the STA Office.
- Apply for any positions you would like to in Round 1 if you would prefer to not be an IST teacher next year.
- If you are not sure if you are currently in a Continuing IST position or Term IST position, check your staff change form in Employee Self-Service. If it says Term and you think it should say Continuing, inquire with HR or contact the STA.
- If you are in a Term IST position, you must apply to the District Pool in Round 2 if you want to continue as a District-Based IST.
- Apply for any School-Based positions in Round 2 if you are interested in becoming a School-Based IST.
- Prepare for the interview. Consider attending an STA Transfer Rounds Workshop.
We understand that this transition may cause some stress, uncertainty, and disruption. The district was clear that they would be moving forward with a plan to convert 1.0 IST assignments from district-based to school-based positions. We entered into negotiations with the district in order to make this process as fair and equitable as possible, and to mitigate the impact on our current pool of IST teachers. We believe that the agreement that we reached through the LRB is the best agreement we could achieve, but there is no doubt that this transition process will cause disruption for our IST teachers during the Spring Transfer Rounds. Were we not able to achieve an agreement, the transition process would have been significantly more disruptive.
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