FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2003

Public Board and secondary teachers ratify agreement
The Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board is pleased to announce that it has ratified an agreement with its secondary teachers represented by the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) District 29 bargaining unit.

The agreement includes amendments to the current collective agreement for the 2002–03 school year. The cost to the Board is 3 percent, which matches the increase in the benchmark for teachers’ salaries recently set by the provincial government. Retroactive to September 1, 2002, secondary teachers’ salaries increase by
2.8 percent, and effective June 27, 2003, by a further 1.37 percent, bringing the annual maximum salary to $73,065 for teachers with honours specialist degrees with a minimum of 12 years teaching experience with the Board.

The signing of this agreement means that the Board has successfully negotiated agreements covering the majority of its employees in the following groups:

• OSSTF—representing secondary teachers
• CUPE—representing clerical, custodial and educational assistant staff
• Secondary school and senior level administration—representing secondary school principals and vice-principals, and supervisory officers and managers

“This Board is demonstrating its commitment to use the recent funding from the provincial government as it is intended: to negotiate salaries with staff. The government gave us 3 percent for this school year and we’ve ensured that it was received by employees,” remarks Judy Edgar, Chair of the Board.

The Hastings and Prince Edward District School Board has 54 schools, over 18,900 students, more than 1,120 teachers, and covers a wide geographical area from Quinte West to the west, Maynooth to the north, Prince Edward County to the south and Deseronto to the east.

For more information contact:
Judy Edgar, Chair of the Board, (613) 921-3203
Chris Salt, Superintendent of Operations and Human Resources, (613) 966-9491 x2281