Frequently Asked Questions

General Questions

Who should I notify of a change to my name or contact information?
You should notify the Local, the ADSB (via the Employee Portal), Apply to Education, ETFO Provincial, the Ontario College of Teachers, and the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.
Where can I find my ETFO number?

Your ETFO number is located on your membership card underneath your name.  You can also find it printed on the mailing label of ETFO Voice magazine.  If you have misplaced your membership card, contact ETFO Provincial Office at 1-888-838-3836 during regular business hours and ask for the Member Records department.

What is the Employee Portal?

The Employee Portal is a web-based application through which you have access to your personal employee information as recorded by the ADSB Human Resources department.  Through the Employee Portal, you can:

  • find your paystubs;
  • find the 2023-24 pay date schedule;
  • get blank OT timesheets;
  • change your personal contact information;
  • apply for leaves;
  • verify your experience credit; and,
  • access information about the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

It is the members’ responsibility to ensure that the information included on this site is accurate. If it is not, contact the HR department at the Board.

What do I need to do each year to remain on the OT Roster?
  1. Complete and return your Intent to Remain Form prior to May 31; and,
  2. Complete your Offense Declaration.

Both items can be found in your Employee Portal.

What do I do if I have forgotten my Board username or password?

If you are having issues with your username or login, try using the Password Reset site. If you continue to experience difficulties, contact the IT Helpdesk at 705-945-7111 x10100.

Salary

What is our daily rate?

Our daily rate is $255.14.  The daily rate is inclusive of statutory holiday pay and vacation pay.

What is QECO and why should I care?

The Qualifications Evaluations Council of Ontario (QECO) evaluates your salary category placement based on academic criteria, providing you with a Statement of Evaluation that must be submitted to the Board.  If you are in an LTO assignment, it is imperative that the Board has a current QECO statement to ensure you are paid appropriately.

You have five (5) months from the start date of your LTO assignment to provide the Board with a QECO Statement of Evaluation that would make you eligible for a higher salary retroactive to the beginning of the assignment.

If you are not yet at Category A4, QECO encourages you to formally apply for upgrading advice or re-evalutation on a yearly basis to ensure that you are on the most expedient route to a higher category.

The application for a QECO evaluation is fully electronic.  Please note that QECO does not provide documents (e.g., Statements of Evaluation) through Canada Post; instead, you must log on to your QECO account and print your documents to provide to the Board.

Where can I find my paystubs?

You can access your paystubs through the Employee Portal.

Benefits

Am I eligible?

Occasional Teachers who are currently in an LTO assignment of greater than 90 calendar days (and those in LTO assignments which reach this threshold) will be invited to enroll in the ETFO benefit plan.  Save your receipts because you can submit retroactively.

Benefits for daily occasional teachers are not available through the ETFO benefit plan; however, OTIP offers group benefits separately for occasional employees.  Visit OTIP – Occasional Employees Insurance for more information.

How and when will I be contacted?

Once you are eligible, you will receive an enrollment email from OTIP to your Board email address.  This can take up to 4 weeks from the start of your eligibility. Save your receipts as you will be able to retroactively claim eligible expenses back to the start date of your LTO assignment.

Is enrolling in the ETFO benefit plan mandatory?

The plan is mandatory for those in eligible full-time assignments, with no premium share.  Members in eligible part-time assignments may voluntarily opt in to health and/or dental benefits, but will be required to pay premiums on a prorated basis (e.g., if you were in a 60% assignment, you would pay a 40% share of the premium for health/dental).

What does the plan cover?

For a benefits-at-a-glance summary, please click here (updated October 2023).  Once you are enrolled in the plan, you can log into OTIP’s secure member website to download a ETFO benefits guide with more detail.

Where can I find more information?

Visit the ETFO ELHT website, or contact OTIP Benefits Services at 1-866-783-6847 Mon-Fri, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Daily Call-out

What time does call-out occur?

Same-day assignments: Call-out occurs Monday to Friday from 6:30 AM to 12 noon.  Easy Connect will call a contact every 3 minutes.  *n.b. We are piloting at 6:00 AM call-out start time until March 30, 2024.

Future-day assignments: Call-out occurs Sunday to Thursday from 5:00 PM (4:30 PM for French assignments) to 8:00 PM.  Easy Connect will call a contact every 5 minutes.

In what order does Easy Connect call OTs for daily assignments?

The call-out system is designed to provide our members equitable opportunity to work, so when offering an assignment, the member who was offered work furthest in the past is the first member called.

Members are called with regard to qualification, so when the system is offering a Primary assignment, it will first contact those who are Primary-qualified before those who are simply willing to teach Primary.

It’s helpful to think of the call-out order as a list of our members from which the person at the top receives an offer of work.  Once an offer is made to you, your name moves to the bottom of the list and cycles upward again as other members receive offers of work.

Can I be requested and pre-booked for a specific assignment?

Generally speaking, a principal or office admin may “manually fill” you into an assignment (thereby bypassing the call-out system) only if you are being asked to return for the regular teacher in the same assignment for consecutive days.  You will receive an email from Easy Connect confirming the assignment.

If you are asked to return for the same teacher on the next day, it is a best practice to ask the principal or office admin to enter the assignment into Easy Connect as soon as possible.  Doing so will prevent the system from calling you for the following day(s), and your name will stay near the top of the call-out order for future assignments.

LTO Assignments

Do I get paid sick leave?

Yes. A member in a full-year LTO assignment is entitled to 11 sick days at 100% pay, and 120 sick days at 90% of pay. A member in a part-time LTO is entitled to sick leave on a prorated basis.

For example, if you’re in a 0.6 LTO for 90 days, you would be entitled to 11 X 0.6 X 90/194 = 3.06 sick days at 100% salary and 120 X 0.6 X 90/194 = 33.40 days at 90% salary. (194 is the number of teaching days in a school year.)

You may use sick leave to attend personal medical appointments.

Am I entitled to health benefits?

Yes, for assignments longer than 90 consecutive calendar days.  See Benefits section above.

Do I need to update Easy Connect with my availability?

Yes, you are responsible for indicating the days you cannot take Daily OT work in Easy Connect.  Failing to do this will result in Easy Connect attempting to contact you repeatedly.  If you have recently taken an LTO assignment, also be sure to cancel any assignments that you have booked in advance which you can no longer fulfill.

What should my schedule be?

Your schedule should be the same as the teacher you are replacing.  A full-time LTO teacher has a schedule that includes a minimum of 240 minutes of prep and a maximum of 80 minutes of supervision over a five-day cycle.

For part-time LTO teachers, the numbers above are prorated.  For example, if you have a 0.7 LTO assignment, you would get 168 minutes for prep, minimum (240 x 0.7), and 56 minutes of supervision, maximum (80 x 0.7).

If you take part of another teacher’s schedule and the prep time or supervision time is unevenly distributed, either has a right to request the timetables be altered so that each has the appropriate amount.

Do I attend Professional Development days?

Yes.  If a PD days falls in the midst of an LTO assignment, the LTO teacher participates and is paid for the day.  LTO teachers who are in partial-FTE assignments are invited to attend and be paid for full PD days.

Do I attend staff meetings?

If you are in a full-time LTO assignment, you are expected to attend staff meetings.

If you are in a part-time LTO assignment, you only have to attend staff meetings if they fall immediately before or after your teaching time.  If staff meetings are Wednesday afternoon but you only teach mornings, or you only teach Tuesdays, you are not expected to attend.  You may choose to attend (e.g., if you are organizing a school event and need to provide details), but you are not required to be there.  You should, however, be sure to catch up on anything missed.

Do I complete an Annual Learning Plan (ALP)?

No.  ALPs are for experienced teachers who have completed the New Teacher Induction Program.

Will I undergo an LTO Evaluation?

Members in their first LTO assignment of four months or longer are to undergo an evaluation.  Click here to view the evaluation template that will be used.  Once you have a successful OT Evaluation, you do not need, and should not have, another.  If an administrator requests you have another, please state that you have already had one.  If they insist you have another, this is a red flag and you should inform the Local.

Hiring

What is Reg 274?

Ontario Regulation 274/12 was enacted by the provincial government on September 11, 2012 under the Education Act. The regulation established steps that all publicly-funded school boards were required to follow when hiring for long-term occasional (LTO) and new permanent teaching positions. Reg 274 was officially revoked in October 2020.

When can I apply to the LTO List?

You can apply when you have been on the OT Roster for a minimum of 10 months and have taught 20 full days within a 10 month period in last five years.  The posting will be available on Apply to Education.

How do I become a new Occasional Teacher with the Algoma DSB?

Visit the Employment Opportunities section of the ADSB website for more information.