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With the end of the school year just weeks away, Adams met with high school principals this week to discuss the issue and to try to determine how many students will be affected.

Dan Maxwell, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation District 25 bargaining unit, denied the action is ramping up the labour dispute.

“I don’t think it is upping the ante in any way, shape or form. It is part of the sanctions that we proposed when we started the strike.”

The Ministry of Education requires 30 per cent of high school grades be based on a final evaluation. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board specifies that should come from two separate tasks, such as a final project and an exam. Teachers communicate evaluation plans to students and parents in a course outline distributed at the beginning of the term. Some of those plans have now changed, with teachers telling students that a scheduled exam has been cancelled.

In addition to giving teachers discretion to change final evaluations of students, the OSSTF has directed teachers in several other areas that Adams said will directly affect students.

Teachers have been told not to enter final grades into the student data system, Adams said, but to hand hard copies of grades to school administrators, which then have to be entered into the computer system before report cards can be completed.

The school board’s priority, she said, will be to get Grade 12 marks completed within a few days. It will also get marks in for students who have failed and need to take summer school. Other report cards “will definitely be late.”