Local birth rates ‘ paint a much different picture’than the Watson report, says Brockton councillor

Peabody urges trustees to be skeptical of outdated and incomplete data Shoreline Beacon Tue Dec 6 2016 Byline: Jane Kent Source: Postmedia Network

Brockton councilor Chris Peabody is offering up some of what Bluewater board members have said they want to hear in the accommodation review process: data. Based on the data he has compiled he is urging the trustees of the Bluewater board to “use caution in accepting the recommendations of the Watson Report.” Chair Ron Motz had previously said at an Oct. 18 meeting that the board will not be looking ” at the emotional side ” but instead wants ” data and concrete reasons, including pointing out information the board may have wrong .” Peabody has gathered numbers from birthing centres in Hanover and Walkerton, which do “paint a much different picture ” than the numbers presented by Watson and Associates, the firm hired by the school board to assess how to deal with excess space and potential school closures. With this information, Peabody says the recommendation to close Paisley Central “is based on an incomplete projection of the number of children in the 0-4 cohort.” Currently Paisley Central and the high school in Chesley are undergoing the ARC process. The Bluewater board has proposed closing Paisley by the end of the 2017 school year, sending their students to a converted elementary-only school in Chesley. Chesley high school students, who are currently housed in the merged JK-12 Chesley Community School would be then bussed to Walkerton or Port Elgin. Peabody’s findings comes hot on the heels of Bruce County Council’s announcement last week that they would fund up to $20,000 to sanction another report, to re-assess the Watson report with more current information but also to include other data sets. The hospital data gathered by Peabody shows an increase of 46 % in births at the Walkerton birthing centre and a 27 % increase at the Hanover hospital since 2011 – which is the year of the last census the Watson report is based on. The census data, Peabody says “is five years out of date and does not account for children born between 2013 and 2016.” Numbers from both birthing centres are reflective of the region and not just Hanover and Walkerton, as this is where those in smaller, surrounding smaller communities go there to deliver. Due to privacy, hospitals cannot release information about which specific towns the parents are from. “The 0-4 age cohort had a population of 2,285 at these two birthing centres. The majority of these births are not accounted for in the Watson report ,” says Peabody. Data was also collected from the Brockton Recreation Department, which shows an increase of 40 % in minor sports registration at the JK level between 2011 to 2016, years not accounted for in the Watson report. When asked what the impetus was to seek out local birth rate data, Peabody said that as a co-op teacher at Sacred Heart High School in Walkerton he drives around to visit students at their placements and he noticed “a lot of moms and dads out during the day walking their babies.” He decided to look at what kind of concrete information he could find gather locally to support what he was seeing. Peabody says there has been “a large increase in births in the core of Grey-Bruce counties.” Peabody says that he while he has been drawing the same conclusions about the Watson report, that “some individuals at Bruce County Council were also realizing ” it needed to be updated. Recent developments such as the Bruce Power refurbishment and natural gas on the horizon could draw more young families to the area. Peabody says a peer review of the Watson report is a “huge deal ” as it has “not been comprehensively challenged yet.” He believes leaving Paisley without a school is “a radical recommendation ” and he urges the trustees to “cast a skeptical eye on the Watson report when making their decisions.” Peabody says he hopes that this data will help communities have discussions with trustees. “At the end of the day, the key message here for trustees ,” says Peabody, “is their legacy as a politician will be that they decimated a small rural community.” Peabody will present his findings at the Jan. 17 ARC meeting.

An update on the move toward a new province-wide benefits plan

As we move into the fall, we’d like to update you on the progress of this important initiative. As you know, CUPE – like others in the education sector – is studying the viability of moving to a single benefits plan for all members in the province. Under the terms of the government’s proposal, future benefits would be paid from a separate Employee Life and Health Trust (ELHT). The trust would be funded by each of the school boards, and jointly managed by CUPE and the government (with CUPE having majority control) for the benefit of all CUPE members.

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Moving ahead – Update on the CUPE Provincial Benefits Plan

Leaders from across the province met in Toronto on April 9th to discuss the prospect of a provincial benefits plan. Under the terms of the government’s proposal, future benefits would be paid from a separate Employee Life and Health Trust (ELHT) funded by the government and individual boards — but owned and managed by CUPE on behalf our members.

All you need to do is complete and submit this brief survey no later that May 20th. Do we have your email address?

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Bargaining Update 4 December 2015

Central agreement ratified

Province-wide ratification votes concluded today, and school board sector members voted to ratify the central agreement reached on November 2nd by a majority of 80 per cent. The agreement was ratified by double majority – that is, a majority of members voting and a majority of CUPE’s 110 participating bargaining units in the sector voted in favour of the memorandum of settlement.

We know that most of you are very disappointed in the wage increases. After the wage freezes in the last round, we heard you loud and clear that we cannot continue to fall behind in every round.

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Bargaining Update 3 November 2015

Tentative agreement reached

As you know, early on November 2nd we reached a tentative agreement with the Crown and the Council of Trustee Associations (CTA). Details of this settlement will be shared with members for your review and for ratification. With your support and back-up, we were able to achieve a fair deal that reflects some gains and many of our bargaining priorities.

A key part of the Memorandum of Settlement (MOS) was that we negotiated that there shall be no reprisals for any member who participated in the work-to-rule job action over the last two months. The settlement states that explicitly, and also says that no member shall suffer any discrimination, harassment, or any form of reprisal related to actions taken during the work-to-rule job action.

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CUPE Education Workers reach tentative agreement with Crown and Council of Trustee Associations in Central Negotiations

TORONTO – The union representing 55,000 education workers in Ontario schools has reached a tentative deal with the Crown and the Council of Trustee Associations (CTA) in central talks. The union is calling an end to its province-wide work-to-rule job action.

CUPE members have been without a contract since August 31st, 2014. CUPE has been bargaining under a new process whereby central negotiations are happening concurrently with talks at board levels across the province. The tentative agreement covers central issues negotiated on behalf of education workers in all four school board systems: English public and Catholic, and French public and Catholic.

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Message to Local Presidents, October 30th, 2015

There are a lot of rumours swirling around, and we ask you to remind your members that they should wait to receive direction from the union before taking any action outside the current work-to-rule job action. Some are asking if there is going to be a province-wide full strike on Monday, November 2nd. We emphasize there will be no province-wide strike action taken until we have given 5 days’ notice to the government and the school boards. We have not given this notice – there is no province-wide full strike that has been called.

Our focus is at the bargaining table right now, where we are working hard to get a deal. Please know that we will communicate out to you when we have news to report, and that until you hear news directly from us, it is not confirmed information. Until you hear otherwise from us, please continue on with the current work-to-rule job action and no more.

In solidarity,

Terri Preston and the OSBCC central bargaining committee