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Volume 46 - Nov. 3, 2021

NEWS

Letter to the Minister: Pandemic Funding Support

On Oct. 22, 2021, Chair of the Board Alexander Brown wrote to the Minister of Education to request predictable and stable pandemic funding and support for school boards, to ensure the health and safety of students and staff. The full letter is now available online.

Update on TDSB’s COVID-19 Vaccination Procedure for Employees, Trustees and Other Individuals

The TDSB continues to implement the COVID-19 Vaccination Procedure for Staff, Trustees and Other Individuals (PR734) to support the health and safety of staff and students in our schools and workplaces. To date, more than 88.5% of our 40,000 staff members are compliant with the procedure.

To ensure that we can continue to support service levels to staff, students and our community, the TDSB will be gradually implementing compliance measures for employees over the next three weeks, starting on Tuesday, November 2, 2021.

For more information, please read the full update that was provided to parents/guardians on Wednesday, Oct. 27.

TDSB Reaches Tentative Local Agreement with Maintenance & Construction Skilled Trades Council

The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has reached a tentative local agreement with the Maintenance & Construction Skilled Trades Council (MCSTC). MCSTC is a trades council that represents approximately 760-1000 permanent and temporary maintenance and construction members as well as affiliated trades unions that perform construction and maintenance projects at the TDSB. This local agreement must still be ratified by the Board of Trustees and MCSTC.

For more information, please read the news release.

Voluntary Disclosure of Student Vaccination Status

The TDSB continues to prioritize keeping schools safe for students and staff and to focus on limiting the number of disruptions to learning as a result of COVID-19. In the event of an interim cohort dismissal related to COVID-19, students who are fully vaccinated are allowed to continue to attend school as long as they have no symptoms. Fully vaccinated staff and students will still have to pass the COVID-19 screening tool each day, confirming they do not have symptoms.

To more effectively manage possible COVID-19 cases and outbreaks in schools, Toronto Public Health has requested that Toronto school boards begin collecting the voluntary disclosure of vaccination status by students born in 2009 and earlier. This is intended to minimize disruption to the students and support a more efficient dismissal process.

For more information, please read the web story.

Statement from TDSB Chair Alexander Brown Re: Supreme Court Ruling

While we are disappointed with today’s Supreme Court ruling on Bill 5, the fact that it was a very close decision supports our Board’s position that the Province’s actions were undemocratic.

Our board took great effort to consult with our communities before finalizing ward boundaries, only to have the Province change them without any opportunity for public notification and consultation. As we said at the time, this is not reflective of reasonable public expectations for consultation, transparency, accountability and the proper administration of government.

We appreciate that the Supreme Court of Canada considered the TDSB’s position in support of the City of Toronto’s case and the people who live here.

Heritage and History Months

The Toronto District School Board is proud to celebrate the following heritage and history months during November:

BOARD MEETING NOTES

The following items were approved or received by the Board of Trustees at the Regular Board Meeting on Oct. 20, 2021:

For more information, including a full list of Board Decisions, please read the Summary of Decisions.

Upcoming Meetings

The next Regular Board Meeting is on Wednesday, Nov. 10, 2021. For a list of upcoming meetings, please click on the calendar on the main webpage of www.tdsb.on.ca.

TDSB Trustees