1. OCSTA President’s Report
Presented by Patrick J. Daly
April 2017

2. Annual Meeting of Ontario’s Catholic School Trustees

3. Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
“The more deeply we are enlivened in our faith, the more confident we become of its truth and the better prepared we are to be the witnesses that Jesus tells us we must be”
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.
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5. Labour
Negotiated 2-yr. extensions to centrally negotiated agreements
Ongoing dialogue with Principal and VP Associations, trustee associations and the government re: possibility of extending terms and conditions
OCSTA advocated strongly for full Crown funding of class size requirements

6. Labour
OCSTA continuing to advocate for adequate funding to accompany regulatory changes to the FDK program and grades 4-6 class size caps.
Human Resource Transition Supplement – a result of OCSTA’s efforts to assist boards in the implementation of new extension agreements.
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7. Key Finance Issues - Advocacy
OCSTA continues to meet with key government officials and MPPs to share recommendations related to our education priorities, including:
Reviewing the special education funding formula
Advocating for a comprehensive review of the student transportation funding model
Enhancing support for the Broadband Modernization Strategy and restoring IT infrastructure funding for boards
Examining the rural and remote school funding structure
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8. GSNs
1.5 % increase in salary benchmarks for unionized and non-teaching staff - $257.2M
$85.7M for professional development
Local Priorities Funding - $218.9M to inject net new special education staffing positions into the system
Employee Health & Benefit Trusts – updated to reflect inflation protection increases, projected staffing and board shares of the benefit costs derived from the benefit costs for school boards.
3% increase for Community Use of Schools ($0.8M)
Human Resource Transition Supplement - $10M
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9. GSNs
JK-SK class size cap of 90% of classes less than or equal to 30 with no more than 10% of JK-SK classes up to 32, only if following exceptions are met:
If purpose-built accommodation is not available
If program will be negatively affected (i.e. French immersion)
Where compliance will increase FDK/Grade 1 combined classes
Boards whose regular gr. 4-8 average class size exceeds 24.5 will be required to reduce the grades 4-8 maximum average class size to 24.5 within the next 5 years.
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10. GSNs
$1B allocated to school boards to address significant backlog in school renewal needs (School Condition Improvement program)
Additional $40M for School Renewal Allocation
Enveloping of per-pupil allocation of the Indigenous Education Grant – plus boards must spend at least $84K on a dedicated Indigenous Education Lead
$31.4M to support boards with increases to electricity, transportation, and non-staff operations
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11. Consultations
Rural Schools – spring engagement/ consultation process regarding new approaches to supporting education in rural and remote communities
School Board Governance – topics:
Access to an integrity commissioner and trustee code of conduct
Trustee honoraria
Electronic participation in board meetings
The student trustee election process
Broadening director of education qualifications

12. Consultations Student Transportation:
Plans for a month multi-stakeholder engagement process
Seeking input and feedback on the vision for student transportation
OCSTA has consistently advocated for a review of the transportation funding model

13. Executive Compensation
Regulation 304/16 requires boards to create an Executive Compensation Framework.
4 trustee associations working together – Steering committee working with Mercer consultants with advice from the Treasury agreed to create:
A common provincial framework, compensation plan content and implementation tools;
A compensation philosophy; and
A simple communications, posting and consulting strategy
OCSTA hosted information session on April 26th to review the framework, the template for local use, and supporting guidelines and other resources.

14. Legislative Update
Bill 68: OCSTA’s recommendations presented at hearing on April 10 address concerns regarding proposals to:
allow “any person” in Ontario to apply to a judge to determine a potential breach of the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act – would invite higher number of frivolous and vexatious claims against councillors and school board trustees
change the term start date from December 1 to November 15
require trustees to file written conflict of interest statements for each board meeting where the trustee declares his or her financial interest
require school boards to create and manage a public registry of written declarations of a financial conflict of interest for its trustees.
OCSTA included a recommendation in support of a proposed change concerning pregnancy and parental leave policies and added that the amendment be extended to school boards as well as municipal councils
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15. Legislative Update
Bill 92: School Board Collective Bargaining Amendment Act, 2017
Joint brief presented at hearings by OCSTA president Patrick Daly and other trustee association representatives
Trustee recommendations emphasized critical need for sequenced bargaining without which there is a risk of continuous and simultaneous sanctions within the education sector at both the central and local levels.

16. Community Hubs
OCSTA and other trustee associations will be participating in the province’s upcoming Community Hubs Summit
OCSTA president Patrick Daly, OPSBA president Laurie French, representatives from the French public and Catholic trustee associations, and a municipal representative will be examining the issues, opportunities and key perspectives with respect to community hubs in operating schools.

17. Separate School Assessment
Joint letter sent from all four trustee associations to the Minister of Finance indicating support for proposed legislative changes to the electronic registration regulation under the Land Registration Reform Act to require property owners to designate school support.
OCSTA continues to advocate for these regulatory changes.
Several meetings held with Ministry of Finance staff on this issue – meeting with the Minister of Finance is being planned.

18. Together in Faith Campaign
Update: Ontario’s Bishops and OECTA officially support the TIF campaign – we now have the opportunity to directly connect with large segments of Ontario’s Catholic community.
We encourage all trustees to add their names to the campaign at
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Toronto CDSB students

19. Visits to CDSBs
Kenora CDSB
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Nipissing-Parry Sound CDSB

20. Catholic Education Symposium
Catholic Education Symposium – November 14-15, 2017 in Toronto.
“Exploring the Critical Role of Catholic Education in Contemporary Society”

21. Questions
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