Advocate The

www.surreyteachers.org

does democratic citizenship fit in? What about factors that limit individual agency such as health, poverty, and dis-

crimination? What about unequal access to resources and experiences? Certainly we want students to find

(Continued on page 8)

Did you know the Surrey Teachers' Association is on Facebook? Search for “Surrey Teachers” and join the group.

Denise Moffatt STA President

“OUTSIDE AGITATORS AND LEFT WING WACKOS” Spring Break started for many of us in Victoria at this year’s BCTF Annual General Meeting. Not only is the AGM our most sovereign decision making body, but it is also a chance to connect with colleagues from around the province and to hear speakers on a variety of education related topics. One highlight was Betsy Kippers from the Wiscon-sin Education Association Council speaking of the challenges facing public sector workers in Wisconsin. Despite the adversity, there is an incredible ground-swell of support for these workers. Teachers have been a crucial part of the push back, and there is widespread support from tens of thousands of community mem-bers. Just prior to the AGM, BCTF President, Susan Lam-bert, and First Vice President, Jim Iker, had the oppor-tunity to travel to Wisconsin on behalf of the BCTF and participate in a rally with 100,000 people. Jim told a story about heading to a restaurant for dinner. When he and Susan walked in the door, the owner called out, “Are you left wing wackos?” Jim replied, “Yes.” The owner further queried, “Are you outside agitators?” Upon hearing them answer, “Yes,” the owner ex-claimed, “Well, come on in!” It is inspiring to see peo-ple stand up for each other and fight for these impor-tant rights. The keynote speaker was Sir Ken Robinson. He spoke of the need to engage students through their strengths, passions, and imagination. In particular he believes that creativity is undervalued in our current education system. He says that standardization and over prescription stifle learners. As a result he sup-ports the personalization of learning to “discover the individual talents of each child, to put students in an environment where they want to learn and where they can naturally discover their true passions.” His presentation, however, left me with further ques-tions. For example, in this personalized world where

April, 2011 In this issue:

• Are We Ready for E-only Provincial Exams? • BCeSIS Bought by Pearson • BCTF AGM / BCTF Executive 2011-2012 • BCTF Listserves • BCTF Member Portal • Did you Know? (Health & Safety) • District Education Centre Update • Earth Day—April 22,2011 • English Language Arts LSA • Is BC Broke? • May 6, 2011 STA Convention (Registration is

open) • STA Annual General Meeting • STA Representative Assembly Training • Student Safety at the Surrey Children’s Festival • STA Retirement Dinner • What’s Expected of a Teacher on Call? • Why the BC Government Wage Freeze is

Indefensible

He says that standardization and over prescription stifle learners.

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STA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING May 18, 2011

Eaglequest Coyote Golf Centre 7778 – 152 Street, Surrey

Election of Executive Officers and Committee members.

President 1st Vice President 2nd Vice President Grievance Officer (one 2-year term) Professional Issues Officer Local Representative to the BCTF (6 positions) Secretary/Treasurer Member-at-Large (3 positions) TOC Representative Bargaining Committee — 1 secondary vacancy Resolutions Committee —7 vacancies

If you are interested please submit a candidate statement for distribution to the membership to the STA office by May 4, 2011 to meet printing timelines. Statements can be e-mailed (preferably) to sta@surreyteachers.org or faxed to 604-594-5176.

Budget Request for 2011-2012

The STA Finance Committee will meet on April 12 to prepare the 2011-2012 STA budget to be adopted at the May 18th Annual General Meeting. If you have any requests or recommendations please forward to the STA office on or before April 12 for consideration.

SURREY TEACHERS’ ASSOCIATION 2010 RECYCLING DIVERSION IMPACT

Sign up today to receive The Advocate via email. Visit the STA website at www.surreyteachers.org and click ‘subscribe to the newsletter.’

Easy, Convenient, Environmentally friendly.

Interested in sharing a ride to and from work? Click on https://sd36.ride-share.com/ For directions, screenshots and a FAQ that explain the process go to https://online.ride-share.com/ Only employees of the Surrey School District can sign up. Also, when someone signs up using their “@sd36.bc.ca” address they have the option to restrict matches to only employees registered on the School District No. 36 subsite.

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Student services and CISC have now moved in to the new District Education Centre. The last month has been a challenging time for these members as they packed up CISC and 29 years of history in their former home behind Costco near King George. In addition, those working at Student Services had to deal with construction at the previously closed David Brankin Elementary in order to re-purpose it as the new Invergarry Adult Learning Centre. Our colleagues at Invergarry are also dealing with the challenge of

moving to their new home. While DEC is a beautiful LEED GOLD standard with lots of light, it is also a new building with more people working in a very small footprint. The new building provides many challenges for members inc luding smal l workspaces and new phone and email systems. Additional departments will be continuing to move in up until November 2011. Please be understanding of possible slower response and support times during the next 6 months.

While every member wants to provide the highest level of support to students and members it will take time to adapt.

RETIREMENT DINNER/DANCE - JUNE 17, 2011

IT IS TIME TO SHOW OUR RETIRING MEMBERS OUR APPRECIATION FOR THEIR MANY YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE TO THE PROFESSION.

Members retiring this June or who retired earlier this year are invited, along with one guest, to the annual STA Retirees’ Dinner/Dance on June 17 at the Eaglequest Golf Centre. Please call the STA office at 604-594-5353 to make sure your name is on our list. We hope to see all of you on June 17th!

**Please pass this message along to anyone you know is retiring.

By Glynis Cawdell, TTOC Representative

Recently, Surrey TOCs shared their opinions on this subject through the First Class TOC Shar-ing Conference. The conversation started when I posted an outline of TOC expectations, from my own perspective.

• Stick to the day plan. • Leave the room tidy. • Leave a detailed note ex-

plaining how the day went. • Complete the marking. • Leave a day plan for tomor-

row. What a TOC is expected to mark and how to plan for the next day were the two hottest topics in our

discussion. Some of the concerns were around the challenges in marking assignments when there is no criteria listed, especially in secondary classes. Perhaps, it was suggested, teachers will be frus-trated by an assignment being as-sessed incorrectly? As for leaving a day plan, this can be very challenging when you do not know the class well or if it is not your level or subject of ex-pertise. Some TOCs wondered if this is just a waste of time. How-ever, it was pointed out that a dif-ferent TOC may be teaching the class tomorrow. Twenty minutes spent photocopying after school saves someone else a frantic morn-ing the following day.

When you prepare for a TOC, do you make your expectations clear? Being proactive and providing a TOC folder to help guide a fellow colleague is the best way to make sure your expectations are met. A

TOC should never be considered just a “filler.” We are real teach-ers, and should be expected to do the job of a real teacher.

WHAT’S EXPECTED OF A TEACHER ON CALL?

DISTRICT EDUCATION CENTRE UPDATE

What a TOC is expected to mark and how to plan for the next day were the two hottest topics in our discussion

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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT APPLICATION - MAY 2, 2011

Completed application forms with conference information must be received by the STA office before 4:30 p.m. on the first school day of May.

ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS LSA It’s hard to believe, but the largest district in the province hasn’t had an English Language Arts Local Specialist Association (LSA) for many years. If you’re interested in getting one going, come out to a meeting at the STA office on Thursday, May 5th at 4:00 pm. All language arts teachers grades 6–12 are welcome. LSAs are a great way for groups of teachers to collaborate and renew their passions; be it through forming writing groups or book circles, or sharing ways to spread the joys of literature. The STA provides plenty of support, so let’s make use of it! Meeting to be hosted by Dave Ellison from the Newton Learning Centre and Bev Schellenberg from Earl Marriott Secondary.

BCTF LISTSERVES • For PSA lists go to www.bctf.ca/lists-psa • For general lists - go to - www.bctf.ca/

lists-public (14 options including: pd issues, social justice, ed tech, teacher inquiry, and en francais)

• To update your e-mail address on a list to which you're already subscribed, you should first leave the list with your old address and then re-join with your new address.

We have been preparing for Convention for more than 10 months. As you are reading this, we are only one month away. Now is the time to reg-ister for convention. We have three sites to meet your con-vention needs. When you are registering, please ensure that you are registering for work-shops at the same site. (As Queen Elizabeth and SFU Surrey are very close, you may want to choose a work-shop at each site.) We continue to use an online system that registers you by name for specific workshops. This gives you priority to be in those work-shops on the Convention Day. If there are spaces available or pre-registrants don't arrive before the workshop starts, then remaining spaces will be

provided on a first come first served basis. To ensure the most options for the most members, we ask that everyone only choose two workshops. There are more than 65 sessions at the secon-dary convention, over 90 at the elementary. You will also likely want to choose to at-tend one of the keynote ses-sions. You may want to con-sider planning one of your time slots to peruse the ex-hibitor area. At elementary there will be more than 60 table displays and at SFU Sur-rey there will be more than 24 table displays. Please ensure that when you register, you list your SD36 email address or it will re-quest that you pay $100 as an out of district teacher. We will monitor the work-

shops as they fill up. Where possible, we will ask a pre-senter with a full workshop to offer a second session. These will be made available once confirmed with the presenter. There is not option for a wait-ing list in our system. If you need to make changes, please log back in with the details provided in the confirmation email once you register. If you register a second time, it requires us to manually go back and remove duplicate registrants.

Please register by April 15, 2011.

MAY 6, 2011 IS CONVENTION DAY

www.staconvention.ca

In summary: • Go to www.staconvention.ca • Login with your sd36 email

address • Register for up to 2 work-

shops and a keynote

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Surrey is paying more than $600,000 per year for access to BCeSIS. While previously Surrey was using an antiquated, outdated system, it did not cost nearly this much. This is money now re-quired to be included in the Dis-trict’s projected 10 million budget shortfall for next school year. The Ministry of Education claims that BCeSIS was developed for districts because districts wanted it. Districts may have asked for help but not at such a high cost. Okanagan Skaha was paying only $20,000 per year and now pays $150,000. The ministry pays another $150,000. Imagine if we could use this $12 million an-nually (1/2 from the ministry and

1/2 from districts) to directly sup-port education. I am sure that you can imagine a better system than BCeSIS at a lower cost and then imagine a plethora of ideas to use the money saved to help students, not just report data. A press release in November from Pearson states, “This pro-gram will ensure ongoing support for eSIS customers and provide opportunities to take advantage of the broader Pearson technology platform. ‘eSIS Customer Advan-tage’ entitles current eSIS custom-ers to free licenses and services to implement a Pearson flagship stu-dent information system over a multi-year period.”

This statement paired with Pear-son’s recent announcement that they will no longer maintain BCe-SIS after July 1, 2012 leaves some interesting questions. What will happen to BCeSIS? What will re-place it? Will the replacement be better? Will I be able to spend more time teaching and less enter-ing data ? To find out more, check out what Larry Kuehn recently published. Larry Kuehn, a staffer at the BCTF published a discus-sion on the future of BCeSIS - a v a i l a b l e h e r e - h t t p : / /www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/I s s u e s / T e c h n o l o g y /LookingBeyondBCeSIS.pdf

By Anita Chapman, BCTF

The ministry plans to move to the e-only administration of Grade 10 and 11 exams here in BC. This has already been implemented in offshore schools. Math is slated to be e-only next year. Science was slated to be e-only starting in Sep-tember 2012, but ministry staff announced on February 16, 2011 that this is now “under discussion” and may not happen. BC offshore schools have had e-only provincial exams for three of four years, and members of the BCAMT (Mathematics) listserv who teach in China have shared experiences and typical problems: 1. not enough computers in the

school for all students to write the exam at once, forcing the creation of unwieldy invigila-tion procedures; e.g., cardboard screens, keeping students in the exam room until after the next

session starts - up to three hours 2. system errors; e.g., two students

had their major essay disappear when they pressed “submit”, both rewrote their essays, but one had it disappear again at “submit” and had to write the essay a third time.

3. exam security issues; e.g., There is only one password for the exam, so if a school holds several sessions of the exam dues to inadequate numbers of computers, a teacher or admin-istrator has to log in to all the computers before the students arrive. Students enter their PEN, etc. and hit “OK”. But if they hit “Back”, they can see the password briefly. This al-lows the student, or someone on their behalf, to log on from any computer anywhere and do the exam without any supervi-sion.

There are currently sample Mathematics 10 e-exams posted on the ministry website. Math teachers who have tried them have discovered that the online calcula-tor is inadequate – there is no root function other than square root, no brackets, and no memory to cap-ture the answer to an intermediate step in a complex problem – and sometimes server errors on sub-mission. The main concern of Math teachers is the number of working computers in the school and the possibility of system failure during the exam. Adding a little levity, members of the Math listserv have been calculating the odds of a net-work failure in any given school during the e-only administration of the Math 10 exams next year. Who says there are no real world appli-cations for binomial probability distribution?

BCESIS BOUGHT BY PEARSON

ARE WE READY FOR E-ONLY PROVINCIAL EXAMS?

SORRY, THE CONSOLIDATED PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND HAS NOW BEEN EXHAUSTED.

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WHY THE BC GOVERNMENT WAGE FREEZE IS INDEFENSIBLE By Tara Ehrcke, BCTF Bargaining Team, GVTA President In the wake of teachers ex-pressing their intention to ne-gotiate a fair and reasonable salary increase, commensurate with what teachers earn in other provinces, came a litany of “excuses” from government. These are almost always predi-cated on the BC government's “net zero” mandate - a wage freeze for the public sector. To defend the government's position, newly minted Minis-ter of Education George Abbott had this to say: “net zero is the order of the day” (as reported in the Globe and Mail). How enlightening. My question is: WHY? I am firmly opposed to accepting a net zero contract and zero wage increase. Here are my reasons.

It is a pay cut Inflation is run-ning at about 2.2% (http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/cpi-ipc/cpi-ipc-eng.htm). This means that a zero percent increase amounts to a pay cut for teachers. Zero over two years would be a 4.4% pay cut. And we would likely never make that up (it being very rare to bargain raises significantly above current inflationary pres-sures).

Public sector workers al-ready took a pay cut in the last decade While inflation ran at 19%, public sector in-creases were on average 17%. Private sector increases kept pace with inflation. While teachers did better than other public sector workers, they are still behind their private sector

colleagues. If public/private sector equity is a consideration, we are behind and need to catch up. The government likes to ar-gue that the net zero mandate needs to be applied fairly across the public sector. Yet that same government provided 3% increases to nurses, break-ing it’s own rule. When asked why, the PSEC chair simply said the nurses “were lucky”. Many public sector unions have yet to settle and many, like the teachers, don’t believe the net zero mandate is fair. The government should elimi-nate the mandate and treat pub-lic sector workers fairly.

MLAs gave themselves 29 - 54% increases In 2007, the Liberals gave MLAs an in-crease of 29%, with 54% for t h e p r e m i e r ( h t t p : / /www.cbc.ca/news/canada/b r i t i s h - c o l u m b i a /s t o r y / 2 0 0 7 / 0 6 / 0 1 / b c -raises.html). Exactly how do they justify “net zero” for the rest of us if they are deserving of so much more? Even spread over four years, this amounts to 7.25% per year, all front loaded, while every other public sector worker was expected to live with “net zero”. If they were so concerned about finances come the reces-sion in 2008, surely they should be paying their fare share with a wage rollback? They did that to health care workers. Are politicians the only public servants who de-serve increases? The hypocrisy is overwhelming.

Teachers are working harder and longer The strip-ping of the collective agree-ment in 2002 had a tremendous impact on teachers’ workload. Combined with budget pres-sures on local boards, the ex-pectations on teachers have risen dramatically. Not only do teachers have incredibly chal-lenging classes to teach, we also read/write/implement more IEPs, attend more meet-ings, call more parents, do more filing/paperwork. The average teacher is now work-ing 49 hours per week and ten percent of teachers are working 60 hours (as reported in the 2009 BCTF study on teacher work-life.)

The government can afford it Despite the rhetoric, this government is all about priori-ties, not belt tightening. There was little discussion of afford-ability when first a 25% tax cut and then the aborted 15% tax cut was introduced. Or what about the $1 billion for the Olympics? The BC stadium roof? From contract stripping, to back to work legislation, to the zero wage mandate, this government has attacked pub-lic sector workers. This is an ideological attack. It is not based on reason, finances or good government.

The government can change it There is no wage control leg-islation. What there is simply the “net zero mandate”. It is time for the government to re-view this unfair practice just as it did the minimum wage and gaming grants. There is no rea-son to stick stubbornly to an unfair policy.

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IS BC BROKE? By Kevin Amboe, STA Bargaining Team

BC chooses to be broke and claims it cannot afford to increase costs to public services. As teach-ers we are very good at prioritiz-ing. We know what has to be done to be prepared for the next day, we

know which students to help first, and we make decisions continu-ously. When the provincial government makes decisions, they do so within the framework of priorities. As we have seen with continued under-funding and downloading of costs to districts (such as $600,000 for BCeSIS per year in Surrey.) The Carbon Tax in BC will generate $740 million this year to create corporate income tax reductions of $267 Million and grants for corpo-rations to be greener. The Surrey Board of Education estimates it will pay up to $1 million per year in Carbon Taxes. This is a triple hit - we are individually taxed, the school board is taxed and the money goes to business. (The BCSTA has a motion that School Carbon Taxes must be used to make schools greener instead of businesses.) Education is not a government priority. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) provides some interesting information on budgeting. For each Federal Budget, they take the same amount of income and look at spending it differently. A report in February 2010 from CCPA showed that “BC has the lowest level of public

sector employment per capita of all Canadian provinces, and BC's government spending has steadily declined since the early 1990s.” BC is choosing not to have the public sector, including education as a priority. When you look at options in-stead of dictates from the govern-ment we can see opportunities. The CCPA also provides the Hen-nessey Index which demonstrated that, “Shifting 1% of Canadians’

collective after-tax income to the one in 10 Canadians living in low income would eliminate poverty in Canada.” Also, a recent article in the USA showed that “America's top thir-teen hedge-fund managers earned an average of $1 Billion each. One of them took home $5 Billion. If the earnings of those thirteen hedge-fund managers were taxed as

ordinary income, the revenues generated would pay the salaries and benefits of 300,000 teachers.” It is about priorities and choices. We need to ensure that the government is making educa-tion a priority. BC is claiming to be broke, yet had the lowest corpo-rate tax rate of any of the G7 coun-tries. The Chretien government dropped the federal statutory cor-porate income tax rate to 21 per cent in 2004, from 28 per cent in 2000. The minority Harper gov-ernment continues the decrease to 15 per cent next year. British Columbia has also been cutting the provincial corporate tax rate, which was down to 10 per cent by Jan. 1 (down from 13.5% in 2002). From 2009/10 to 2010/11 that is a further BC Cor-porate Income Tax cut of $267,000,000 decision. The priority demonstrated by the BC Government is reduce corpo-rate taxes rather than adequately fund public education. This has to change.

BC is choosing not to have the public sector, including education as a priority.

The priority and decisions made demonstrated by the BC Govern-ment is reduce corporate taxes rather than adequately fund pub-lic education.

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BCTF AGM (adapted from BCTF news release)

For the first time in a decade, the Minister of Education addressed the BCTF AGM. I was one of the dozens of teachers lined up at the microphones for an opportunity to tell Education Minister George Abbott about the difficult reality. The minister had agreed to speak for 5 minutes and instead spoke for almost 15 minutes. Only two teachers were able to speak in the brief time available. They both spoke eloquently about their frustration with current teaching and learning conditions, and their distress when students' needs can't be met.

As the minister only scheduled 30 minutes, took an additional 5 minutes to answer a question not asked, there was no more time for teachers. There were several Surrey delegates lined up to speak and fortunately, the BCTF was able to later capture our comments on video. You may see some of your colleagues sharing their challenges in future BCTF productions. As the minister was preparing to leave, Susan Lambert was able to get a few closing words in pointing to the excellent teaching and learning conditions in Finland, which many scholars consider to have the finest public education

system in the world. In Finland, teachers are highly respected and enjoy professional autonomy, average class sizes are 21 even without legislated limits, and the teachers’ union is a key partner with government. She concluded, “Minister Abbott, we’d like to go to Finland. My question to you is: How can you help us get there?” It is ironic that the minister had only 30 minutes to listen to us as teachers when he said, “As Minister of Education, my door will always be open to Susan [Lambert] and it will always be open to you [teachers]. He did have more time available for that day, but it was for the media.

March 19-22, 2011 - Victoria, BC

their passions and achieve their potential, but this potential must be developed as part of a greater com-munity not as individuals. I must also mention the appear-ance of our new Education Minis-ter, George Abbott. Abbott was invited to bring greetings from the ministry and to hear concerns from teachers. For us, this was an op-

portunity to begin a true dialogue with government about the condi-tions in our classrooms and the needs of our students. Abbott was warmly welcomed, but after hear-ing from only two of the countless speakers at the microphones, he was out of time. He left the meet-ing room where he “found time” to take questions from reports for more than 10 minutes and then did an interview on the Bill Good show.

Back in Surrey, we will have a busy spring. Extended day and overcrowding continue to be press-ing issues. The bargaining table is open and we have had two ses-sions locally. No surprise, road blocks are already being thrown up. Transfers will start in mid April too. These will be trying times but with clear objectives, solid principles and a good dose of perseverance, I know we will come out ahead.

(Continued from page 1)

Outside agitators and left wing wackos

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BCTF EXECUTIVE 2011–2012

President Susan Lambert, First Vice-President Jim Iker, and Second Vice-President Glen Hansman have been re-elected by acclamation to continue in their respective positions at the helm of the 41,000-member BC Teachers’ Federation. Also elected to serve as members-at-large on the BCTF

Executive Committee were: David Komljenovic from Kamloops, Joanna Larson from Prince Rupert, Teri Mooring from Quesnel, Paul Steer from Delta, and Christine Stewart from Vancouver. The remaining members at large are serving the second year of their term.

Unfortunately Jennifer Wadge was not elected as a member at large this year. She had a great speech, an energetic campaign, and we know she will make a great candidate in the future.

During April, several of your colleagues will be attending STARA training. The focus this month will be about 'Getting Ready for Bargaining'. Our Collective Agreement expires this June and the local and provincial

bargaining tables have already opened. This workshop focuses on the history of teacher local bargaining and the bargaining plan for the upcoming round of negotiations. Central will be involving all teachers in the

bargaining process as a key objective of the workshop. Staff representatives will leave with strategies to be effective conduits between school staffs and the bargaining team/local executive.

STA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY TRAINING -

Susan Lambhert Jim Iker Glen Hansman President First Vice president Second Vice President

Rick Guenther Kip Wood David Komljenovic Joanna Larson

Denise Moffatt Teri Morring Paul Steer Christine Stewart

Members at Large

April 14, 15, 18, 19, 20, 2011

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By Jude Campbell, retired Surrey teacher

I have always had an enjoyable, relaxing day of creative fun and entertainment with my grade fours and fives at the Surrey Children’s Festival. I know colleagues that have expressed fears about safety, particularly when taking younger students, into such an open area. I sat down recently with Marnie Perrin, the Festival Director, to find out more about what they do to make sure everyone’s safe. Here’s what she shared with me:

“Planning for safety begins long before the festival. Each year we meet with the Surrey RCMP detachment to create a safety plan for the site. We then determine how many RCMP officers will be on site at all times during the festival. The RCMP also conduct a safety orientation session for all volunteers at the festival, including training in emergency procedures in case of earthquake and other hazards. Volunteers are trained to keep alert for any sign of lost or distraught children, and to be aware of any suspicious or unusual individuals. Three info booths

provide immediate access for supervisors if a child seems lost and a fan out of the area is initiated by RCMP officers, staff and volunteers. The festival

employs a professional First Aid company, with attendants on site at all times, to deal with medical concerns.

Site layout is important in safety planning. Activity tents are kept in the centre area of the park, away from any wooded area, with all entrances facing inside a rough circle. All supervised activities and roving performers remain inside this centre area.”

Two important items for teachers to note when planning: • Before you come to the festival:

If you have purchased tickets to a show, you receive a free wristband. On the back of the wristband write the cell phone number of the supervisor on site.

Festival staff suggests picking up your tickets and wristbands before you come to the festival; the cell phone contact numbers can be written on the wristbands and the students can be wearing them before they arrive on site. If you are not attending a show, purchase a wristband to take part in all the arts activities on site.

• If you wish to take part in the free activities, make sure each child has a cell phone number of a supervisor on site attached to them, don’t include the child’s name. When a child is separated from their class, the festival will call this number.

• Once on site, show everyone where the information booths are and that people wearing a children’s festival t-shirt are safe to approach if they are lost. Planning done, you can relax.

Come out with your students and enjoy the wonder of the Surrey Children’s Festival, now in its seventh successful year.

For information and tickets go to www.surreychildrensfestival.ca. or phone the box office at 604-501-5566.

STUDENT SAFETY AT THE SURREY CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL

Planning for safety begins long before the festival. Each year we meet with the Surrey RCMP de-tachment to create a safety plan for the site

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Norwalk virus, Avian flu and other viral, bacterial, or fungal infections can be a cause for concern in schools. The document below has lots of information to assist schools. In accordance with Part 6.34 of the Occupational Health & Safety Regulations, the employer must develop and implement an exposure control plan, based on the precautionary principle. I n f e c t i o n C o n t r o l a n d Transmission-based Precautions: • Whenever there is a viral,

bacterial, fungal or parasite occurrence that causes concern to an employee, the employee must bring it to the attention of their site supervisor who will then consult the List of Risk Group 2, 3, & 4 Hazardous Substances and follow the listed reporting procedure.

• Absenteeism of 10% or more on any one day at any one site due to same symptoms is considered

an outbreak and should be reported to public health and the Health, Safety and Benefits Department.

• With any viral outbreak, precautions should follow a c o n t i n u o u s i mp r o v e m e n t process. With input from workers, controls and standards may include the following:

• Encouraging good hygiene, which includes washing hands: i. After touching anything that

could be contaminated with the body fluids of others (saliva, nasal secretions, feces);

ii. After coughing sneezing iii. After using the toilet iv. Before and after meals and

snacks v. Before and after preparing

food vi. Before and after smoking

cigarettes vii. When arriving home viii. Before and after work

• Providing alcohol-based hand sanitizers for workers in places or situations where it is impossible to wash hands with running water and soap.

• Regular cleaning of frequently touched surfaces, such as d o o r k n o b s , r a i l i n g s , telephones, keyboards, etc.

Information on the Exposure Control Plan will be included as part of the regular New Worker/Young Worker Orientation program

http://www.surreyteachers.org/biohazard-procedures/ For more information, please contact the STA Health and Safety Officer, Lori Wilson.

Health & Safety: Did you know?

Absenteeism of 10% or more on any one day at any one site due to same symptoms is considered an outbreak

The BCTF has created a member portal. The intent is to provide you more direct access to information and in some cases information that

is not public. To register the first time, you will need either your BCTF ID number or your Surrey employee number. Go to https://members.bctf.ca/

For over 40 years, Earth Day —April 22 — has inspired and mobilized individuals and organizations worldwide to demonstrate their commitment to environmental protection and sustainability. Wondering what you can do this Earth Day? (or better yet, year-round) Take a look at the list below and see what you can do take care of our Earth. Remember, together our actions add up.

Earth Day Resolution Ideas • Use vinegar and natural

cleaners in your home • Bike or walk to work • Switch to canvas grocery

bags • Buy recycled products • Better yet, Precycle • Buy Fair Trade • Eat less meat • Use cold water and

biodegradable laundry soap • Use energy efficient light

bulbs For more information, check out http://www.earthday.org/

EARTH DAY

Surrey Teachers' Association Calendar - April, 2011

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat 4 5 6 7 8 9

4:00 Anti poverty ad hoc committee meeting

9:00 Bargaining Committee meeting 3:00 Mentorship Planning 4:00 STA Exec

4:00 Grievance Committee meeting

4:00 Transfer workshop at Fleetwood Public Library

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 3:45

Pro-D Committee meeting

4:00 Finance Committee meeting Convention Committee meeting

National

Day of Pink

4:00 Post AGM meeting at Bear Creek Pavilion 4:00 Board Layoff meeting at Enver Creek Sec.

STARA Training at Bear Creek Pavilion

17 18 19 20 21 22 23 9:00

Finance Committee meeting

4:00 Mentorship 4:00 STA Exec

4:00 STARA Meeting at Eaglequest Coyote Golf Centre

Good Friday Earth Day

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Easter Monday Day of

Mourning

May 2 3 4 5 6 7 May 2, 4:30

Deadline to submit International Conference Pro-D Application

4:00 English Language Arts LSA

STA Convention

<—STARA Training at Bear Creek Pavilion —>

Please respect the unions picket lines and do not patronize these businesses until the dispute is settled.

Major Issues Commenced

Vancouver Island University Faculty Association (FPSE)-VS-Vancouver Island University (Nanaimo, Parksville, Powell River)

Job Security, Seniority, Job Categories

March 10, 2011

United Steelworkers (USW) Local 9346-vs-Teck Coal Ltd. (Elkview Operations) (Sparwood, BC)

Retirement Benefits January 30, 2011

Construction, Maintenance & Allied Workers Bargaining Council Carpenters, Local 1928 (CMAW)-VS-Cove Top & Flash Cover

Wages, Concessions Locked Out December 23, 2010

Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Local 873-VS-BC Ambulance Service

Wages, Compensation, Classification

April 1, 2009

United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW), Local 1518-VS-Extra Foods (Maple Ridge)

Wages, Job Security December 15, 2008

CURRENT LABOUR DISPUTES

April 16, 2011 City of Surrey is hosting a huge

Party for the Planet at Central City Plaza