1. APA & STO TRAINING

2. We rely on our administrative staff, TEACHERS and branch presidents to ensure compliance with our collective agreement and to be mindful of our board’s fiscal responsibility. Your hard work and dedication can help achieve our goals! 2

3. Alternative Professional Assignments (APAs)
What are they? How are they used?
Teachers are available, for a number of half-period assignments each year as set out in the C.A., to supervise students within the school
APAs assignments include:
On-calls
(assigned during teacher’s YAPA period)
Supervision duties
Assigned during lunch or YAPA period or immediately before/after school 3

4. Collective agreement (C.A.):
This school year, the maximum number of APAs that may be assigned to each teacher as on-calls/supervision duties is:
46 half periods (based on 75 minute periods) for most full-time teachers in a school (i.e. not 23 per semester – may assign up to 46 during the whole school year)
pro-rated for part-time teachers (e.g. a .67 FTE teacher would do 31 APAs)
all student mentoring (no on-calls/supervision) for
off-site PAE teachers and PEAK teachers 4

5. C.A. (continued) Maximum number of APAs (continued):
24 half periods for full-time CBE teachers
CBE Heads – depends on the level of headship
(Levels 1&2 = 20, Level 3 = 16, Level 4 = 12, Level 5 = 8)
Other Subject Heads – depends on the level of headship (Level 1&2 = 42, Level 3 = 38, Level 4 = 34, Level 5 = 30)
The reduced numbers of APAs for Heads are in recognition of their Teacher Mentoring responsibilities 5

6. C.A. (continued)
An APA served by an OT will be credited to the absent teacher only after the 1st day of consecutive absences
A teacher shall not be assigned more than one half-period of on-call or supervision in a day. No teacher may agree to do more than one APA in a day 6

7. C.A. (continued)
A teacher who serves an APA will be credited with one APA for the day. There will be no fractional APAs assigned or credited
A supervision duty may be split into a maximum of two blocks during one day
(ex: bus duty of 15 minutes before school and 15 minutes after school) 6

8. APAs
Before school starts in Aug./Sept., the VP should create a list of teachers available for supervision during each period; this list should be balanced with some emphasis on the last period of the day to accommodate sporting events
Draw from this list when assigning APA duties to teachers 7

9. APAs
It is important to assign APAs to teachers on a regular, ongoing basis, and in a consistent manner
Wherever possible, except as directed by the C.A.(ex: L.F.2.7), APAs should be used over STOs: there is no ‘additional’ cost to the system to use APA supervision, whereas there is a cost to hiring an OT
All teachers’ APAs should be close to maximum usage (100%) by the end of the school year; no teacher should have significantly fewer APAs assigned than other teachers
(except under DMP) 8

10. APAs and CBE Teachers
CBE teachers should have supervision schedules rather than on-calls for APAs, and only between the end of the first month and the beginning of the last month of each semester
CBE teachers may cooperatively determine their APA assignment structure with P/VPs provided these solutions adhere to the CA. For example, doing some on-calls instead of supervisions or scheduling supervisions at specific times of the day - still only one APA per day
Teachers with a combination of CBE and
non-CBE periods will be assigned a
pro-rated APA total 9

11. The Tracking of APAs
TeachAssist should be populated with the total number of APAs available by teacher
(recall ‘types’ of assignments and appropriate number of half-periods)
Carefully track each teacher’s APA usage daily
TeachAssist may have limitations –you may need to keep track manually for these anomalies 10

12. The Tracking of APAs
The VP and STAR secretary should meet regularly to review the tracking and analyze the data
Monthly, within 5 days after month end, VP, STAR secretary and BP meet to review; as per the C.A. provide the BP with a copy of the APA Tracking for the previous month’s usage and the cumulative usage over time 11

13. Short Term Occasional Teacher (STO) days:
What are they? How are they used?
Occasional teacher is called by Board’s STAR system/Dispatch to fill in for an absent teacher
This is generated by the absent teacher’s call to STAR
It is crucial that all jobs are verified in STAR daily – have a back up person to do this if the STAR secretary is unable to; OTs do not get paid if this is not done
Cancellation of an OT the morning of the
assignment should not occur unless approved by STAR 13

14. STO DAYS (continued):
Any secondary teacher on the OT Roster, currently in a one-section assignment at the school (contract or LTO) may be pre-arranged by the school to cover a two-period absence (plus ½ period APA) prior to the job being released for callout
Except only as described above, all anticipated absences must be opened in STAR: STAR secretary should not contact OTs directly (i.e. no pre-arranging of a particular OT) to fill a vacancy unless with VP approval; the regular STAR callout/dispatch process must take place
A teacher normally assigned two teaching periods may not be assigned daily OT work, but may apply for a 1-section LTO, if it fits with the teacher’s timetable
No LTO assignment may be “given/granted” to any
teacher or OT without posting and following Reg 274 14

15. STO DAYS (continued): The VP responsible should remind teachers:
not to request an OT when prompted in STAR
to call STAR well in advance of a known anticipated absence (e.g. medical appointment, field trip, athletic event, Heads’ retreat, jury duty, etc.)
to provide ‘special instructions’ in STAR where appropriate (e.g., field trip, or sex ed. class).
There is no need to ‘STAR out’ absences
of ½ period or less. 14

16. STO DAYS & THE C.A. As directed by the C.A. an OT MUST be called for:
H&S days for Department Heads
Union Business (more than 1 period)
Illness of family member
Funeral
Faith day
WSIB
Max. 5 days for birth/adoption where no mat leave
Moving day
Exam
Convocation of teacher/teacher’s spouse/son/daughter
Principal approved emergency
Quarantine
Conferences/conventions/workshops where teacher is required to attend
Replacing a short term temporary administrative
assignment 15

17. STO ASSIGNMENTS & THE C.A.:
A full day STO assignment consists of three 75-minute periods and one half-period APA
The timetable of an STO teacher must be consistent with or similar to the timetable of the teacher who is being replaced
This means:
i) the timetable matches the absent teacher identically regardless of how many subjects the absent teacher may teach;
ii) the timetable matches a minimum of 2 sections of the absent teacher’s timetable or occasional teacher’s teachables regardless of whether they are actually the absent teacher’s classes
An STO may agree in advance to do a combination of classes and APAs to a maximum of 3.5 periods
A two-thirds STO day, consisting of two instructional periods
and a half-period APA, shall be in the first 3 periods or the last
3 periods of the day, unless agreed in advance by the OT 16

18. STO tracking:
Use the tracking template available on the bww and refer to the instructions provided on the chart:
Post it monthly for system access
Do not count LTO days as STO days; if necessary, go back and correct the tracking if STO days were used/counted and flip to LTO days
Do not record C.I.S., Student Success, etc. budget days to the ECS - STO day allocation; use the correct code for these purposes; check with C.I.S. periodically to ensure correct usage/coding of days used for these purposes
Post the completed chart on the sharepoint site within 5 days after month end 17

19. STO Allocation
School STO allocations (# days allotted) to be released next week
Each school’s Allocation is based on total FTE staff, and may have been adjusted based on historical information 19

20. STO Allocation
Use only the allocation given to your school; seek permission from your Superintendent of Schools before going above this number
APA Usage/STO Usage data will be centrally shared with Superintendents of Schools mid-year: they support schools tracking these days 20

21. Resources For APA and STOs For STAR BWW – Secondary Staffing Page
Information on STOs
Best Practices
APA Calculator
APA/STO PowerPoint presentation
For STAR
BWW – STAR System Documents
Excel files for Attendance Tracking