Toronto’s 60,000 Catholic elementary students likely will not get teacher comments on their June report cards, and those in Grades 3 and 6 probably will get out of writing the annual provincial tests in the 3 Rs, as their teachers plan to launch a work-to-rule Tuesday.

In its first job action in 15 years, the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers also will not plan field trips for next year or attend after-school meetings or workshops until the local union reaches a deal with the Toronto Catholic District School Board, said union president Patricia Minnan-Wong.

But she noted year-end field trips, sports events and graduation ceremonies will continue for the rest of the current school year.

“We don’t go into this lightly — the last time we took part in a work-to-rule was in 2001, because it affects our 4,000 members and their families,” said Minnan-Wong. Other than a lockout in 2003, her members have shown “uninterrupted service and dedication” over the years, she said, and “deserve no less than a fair and just collective agreement.”

Because negotiations with the school board have stalled but not broken off, Minnan-Wong would not specify which issues remain a stumbling block, but noted they do not relate to salary or benefits, which have been agreed upon provincially. However, Minnan-Wong had said previously the school board wants to introduce an “attendance management policy” to which the union objects.

According to a recent memo sent out by TECT and obtained by the Star, in local negotiations the Catholic board is “proposing significant strips to your current collective agreement, including … implementing attendance management — a regressive, demoralizing and ineffective costly program that monitors teacher absences for the ultimate purpose of cutting salary and benefits.”

The union also said the board is trying to claim 20 minutes of teachers’ 60-minute lunch, and “not responding to the legitimate concerns of teachers such as taking appropriate steps to protect members from harassment/reprisal, ensuring that members do not work an extended day.”

There are no dates yet for talks to resume.

In 2015, teachers in Ontario’s 33 public English-language school boards refused to take part in the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) tests, leaving a gap in literacy and numeracy data for about 183,000 students for the year 2014-2015. Teachers in Catholic schools and French-language schools did not take part in that boycott.

EQAO tests this year are to be held May 25 to June 8.

“But nothing interrupts the teachers’ ability to carry out their own diagnostic assessment of students,” noted Minnan-Wong.

As their public school counterparts have done over the past year, Toronto’s Catholic teachers also will refuse to fill out report cards, but will submit class lists with student marks for office staff to input onto report cards. They will provide marks alone, plus one comment about the student’s performance in religion class.

Other boards where teachers are working to rule:

High school teachers with the Toronto District School Board will not write comments on report cards and have stopped attending staff meetings, which means students lose some late-start mornings. It’s one of three local units of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) currently without a contract and taking job action.

High school teachers in Trillium-Lakelands District School Board, which includes Muskoka, Haliburton and the Kawartha Lakes, are not helping plan or attending graduation ceremonies and will give all students an “S” (for satisfactory) in the “learning skills” section of report cards, regardless of achievement. The board has filed a case with the Ontario Labour Relations board over the union’s demands.

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High school teachers in the Rainy River District School Board in northwestern Ontario have started holding a strike one day a week to pressure the board for a deal. Among sticking points are a high number of union grievances — 18 times the provincial average, notes Paul Elliott, president of the OSSTF. Also, teachers who have been laid off are not being called back to work based on seniority, says the union.