Interview/Resume and Portfolio Workshops

Interview and Resume Workshop
Monday October 6th 2014
Time: 4:30-6:30pm
Location: DSBN Education Centre, St. Catharines Room (3rd floor)

To attend, please RSVP to arlie@niagaraot.org.

Interested in getting on the LTO List when it opens again?  This is the workshop for you!  Presented by two recently retired DSBN Principals, this is a hands-on workshop to help you tweak your resume and fine-tune your interview skills.


Portfolio Show and Share Workshop Wednesday October 8th 2014 Time: 4:30-6:30pm Location: ETFO Office, Fonthill No RSVP needed. Bring what you've got and your questions to share and learn with your colleagues.  This will be a facilitated session to help us succeed together.

Annual Queenston BBQ

3rd Annual Niagara OT Family BBQ Friday, September 26, 2014 Time: 4:30pm-Dusk Location: Queenston Heights Pavilion 2 (by splashpad) (Map) Free food, bouncy castle, and magician! Please RSVP to Lianne@NiagaraOT.org  

2014 Collective Bargaining Survey

In order to negotiate the best agreement for our members your Collective Bargaining Committee needs your help!  Your union is a democratic member-driven organization, and your opinions matter.

It is important that all our members complete the survey so we can utilize your input in developing preliminary submission language for our next round of negotiations. All questions are optional. However, to best serve you we would appreciate if you could answer all the questions to the best of your knowledge or choose the options that are the closest to your personal situation. All answers and information you provide are strictly confidential.  You can access our current Collective Agreement at contract.niagaraot.org if you'd like to refer to it as you complete the survey.

This round of bargaining is a bit different than previous years. We've had two rounds of bargaining now where local bargaining was severely curtailed by events at the provincial level (such as Bill 115 last year). However, we now have Bill 122, the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act (SBCBA). SBCBA promises two tiers of independent bargaining... provincial and local. So theoretically we'll have a better opportunity to focus on items identified by the members in this round. It also means that a number of key issues such as compensation and hiring related to Regulation 274 will be dealt with at the provincial table.  While this CB survey tries to focus on bargaining at the Local level, rest assured that we will be working hard within ETFO to ensure that your interests are well-represented when it comes to central bargaining items as well.

All that being said, we have two past preliminary submissions to draw upon, and we don't know yet what the central bargaining issues will be. So our CB survey this time around is shorter and more focused on drawing on your experiences in the classroom and more generally as an employee of DSBN.

Click here to complete the survey

2014 Local Annual General Meeting

The 2014 Local AGM will be held on May 27th at Club Capri.  Our guest speaker will be ETFO Vice-President James McCormack, who will be speaking about Reg 274 and Bill 122.  We also have a number of constitutional amendments proposed, and they are published for your review here: Proposed Constitutional Amendments

Tuesday, May 27, 2014 Time: 4:30-7:30pm Location: Club Capri, 36 Cleveland St, Thorold Free meal, updates from the President, budget year-to-date status, guest speakers. And of course, door prizes!  (Including a year-end Grand Prize!) Please RSVP to president@niagaraot.org (also indicate dietary restrictions and if you've reached a career milestone [5, 10, 15, 20 years or have begun collecting OTPP]) Local AGM Flyer
Why should you attend?

• To make sure the people who speak for you get to hear your concerns.
• To get correct answers to questions, rather than the dubious answers provided by the grapevine.
• To understand the issues so we can work together to make a difference.
• To become involved, a little or a lot.  Changes are happening that will affect you and your career.  It's in your best interest, personally and professionally, to know what's going on.
• It's your union.  We're a democratic, member-driven organization.  Your opinion matters.

Fruit Tree Trail Project

Our Local has joined with Greening Niagara and other community partners in a project called the Fruit Tree Trail--Niagara's first urban food forest project. It will take a few years to complete, and will span the entire Green Belt of the Niagara region where fruit trees will be planted and their fruit harvested to be donated to local food banks.

We participated in tree-planting on April 26th, and planted native fruit-bearing species such as gooseberry, raspberry, blackbery, currant, hickory, pawpaw, and others.

There's more work to do, though!  There will be another planting session on May 3rd at the same location (bring a shovel if you have one), and Greening Niagara plants trees frequently enough that you can plant trees pretty much any time you want.

When: Saturday, May 3rd, 10am-12:15pm
Where:  The project is along Dick’s Creek, a tributary of the 12 Mile Creek system.
Take Oakdale Ave ST CATHARINES to Disher St.  Turn right on Disher, then turn right onto Moffat and park at end of the street. Dick's Creek info (Search "Disher St" on Google Maps and it's clear where it is).