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The Blue Pages

 

Council Appoints Joe Atkinson as Registrar

College’s First Head of Professional Affairs Succeeds Margaret Wilson

Joe Atkinson took over as new Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of the College November 1, replacing Margaret Wilson.

"I am pleased to take on this leadership role to serve the public and the profession," said Atkinson. "I want to thank Margaret Wilson for her outstanding efforts in establishing the College and setting the example for the College through her work ethic, her dedication to public accountability and her passion for the teaching profession."

"The massive wave of retirement and new hiring in the profession, the accreditation of professional learning providers – pre-service and in-service – as well as new initiatives such as the language proficiency and entry to the profession requirements will be major challenges of the next few years. The College will have a determining role in making sure that teachers can to continue to offer Ontario students the best education possible."

"I look forward to working with colleagues here at the College and throughout the teaching profession to continue to build teachers’ professionalism and public confidence in the Ontario education system."

Atkinson completed his teacher training at Lakeshore Teachers’ College, receiving the Prince of Wales Prize as the top graduating teacher of 1966. He holds a BA degree from York University and a MEd degree from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto.

A career educator, Atkinson began teaching with the Toronto Board of Education in 1966. In 1974, he joined the professional staff of the Ontario Public School Teachers’ Federation and was named its first Director of the Professional Development Services Department in 1991. Atkinson was awarded a fellowship by the Ontario Teachers’ Federation in 1992 in recognition of his contribution to the professional learning of educators.

Atkinson joined the senior staff of the College in 1997, serving as Co-ordinator of the Professional Affairs Department. He was appointed Deputy Registrar in June of 1999. He led the development of the first Standards of Practice for the Teaching Profession in Ontario, a document that defines what it means to be a teacher. The standards are progressively striking a chord with Ontario educators who helped develop them through an extensive research and consultation process and have received considerable international attention.

"Joe’s leadership and understanding of the profession were instrumental to the development of the standards," said former Standards of Practice and Education Committee Chair Clarice West-Hobbs. "The process included the public, the profession and a host of other professional organizations. Ontario teachers now have standards that truly define what it is to be a teacher."

The pilot project to accredit pre-service programs in Ontario’s faculties of education was also successfully developed and implemented under Atkinson’s leadership.

Former Council Chair and Accreditation Committee member Donna Marie Kennedy says, "Joe’s leadership in the College’s accreditation process shows that he has the vision and ability to develop successful initiatives from the ground up. His ability to bring together the public, educators and other professionals has served the College very well and will continue to be a great asset for the College."

A dedicated community volunteer, Atkinson has served as president of the United Way of Ajax-Pickering and as chairman of the board of directors of the Ajax and Pickering General Hospital and was a founding member of the Hospital Council of Durham Region. He was elected to the Town of Ajax Council in 1985 and over eight years in public office served in a number of positions including local Councillor, Durham Regional councillor and deputy mayor. A former board member of the Central Lake Ontario Conservation Authority and vice-chair of the Ajax Hydro Electric Commission, Atkinson is currently a member of the Rogers Cablesystems Advisory Board. For his outstanding contribution to his community, Atkinson was named the citizen of the year for 1995 and was the recipient of the Ajax Civic Award.


E-Commerce Convenience Coming to College

The College is improving client service through the introduction of electronic commerce. College members will eventually be able to use the popular web site www.oct.ca to conduct most of their business with their licensing body. However, the College will launch the initiative step by step by introducing the option of paying annual membership fees online early next year.

"E-commerce is the next step in a number of state-of-the art computerized services the College has put in place to improve client service and satisfaction," said Membership Services Co-ordinator Lynda Palazzi. "Our library, our call centre, our membership records and our public register are now all fully automated, easily accessible and allow us to monitor the quality of our services."

E-commerce will allow teachers to login to a secure area of the College’s web site and quickly complete a range of transactions with the College with a click of the mouse. A number of private companies and services – like banks and retailers – are already using the technology with great success.

"College members will welcome the launch of electronic commerce as another convenient tool for them to use," said Palazzi. "Various surveys we’ve conducted show that most teachers have access to a computer at school or at home. Of course, teachers who don’t have good access to technology will still be able to interact with us by mail or phone."

"Possibly the greatest benefit of e-commerce and the other computerized systems we have put in place is that they are accessible all across the province. Once we have fully implemented the new systems, it basically won’t matter any more if you’re in Dryden, Windsor or downtown Toronto. It means a major improvement in client services, something that we always strive for."

The College has used its web site successfully to conduct the consultation on teacher testing and help run the 2000 Council election campaign that ended in October. College members were able to go to the election page and search the names of the candidates in their categories to read their biographies before voting.

As well, members can use the College’s library online catalogue to search for books or other reference materials they need. They can also access the list of journals or upcoming education conferences directly on line.

In the future, the College expects to have a fully automated access to all of its services, allowing people to register, request information and services and update their records online.


Project to Improve Access to French Additional Qualification Courses

The College is co-ordinating a new pilot project to make Additional Qualification courses more accessible to francophones across the province. The project will eliminate some of the barriers – often chronic – that francophones face when looking for professional learning opportunities.

The program will be developed jointly with the Association des enseignantes et des enseignants franco-ontariens (AEFO), the Ontario Ministry of Education, the Consortium des directeurs et directrices d’éducation de langue française, the faculty of education at the University of Ottawa and l’École des sciences de l’éducation de l’Université Laurentienne. The Ministry of Education is providing $150,000 in funding for the project.

The goal of the project is to improve access to career-long professional learning for francophone teachers. It will use a variety of state-of-the-art technologies – teleconferencing, Internet, videoconferencing and audiographics – to reach the largest audience possible.

"The College recognizes that because of their smaller number and their distribution across Ontario, francophones face additional difficulties when it comes to accessing professional learning," said Professional Affairs Co-ordinator Linda Grant.

"Francophones face a hurdle when they want to take the Principal’s Qualification Program, for example, because the courses required as prerequisites are not currently offered and, in some cases, have not been offered for a few years in French."

As the first step of the project, the AEFO surveyed francophone teachers across Ontario on their needs and intentions in terms of professional learning between 2001 and 2003. This data will inform the decisions regarding the selection of distance learning courses.

The faculties will lead the development and implementation teams for the distance learning courses. During the pilot project the College will also initiate the review and revision of the current course guidelines.

"We will monitor this project closely as it may lead to new opportunities for teacher professional learning in the future," said Grant. "The challenge will be to integrate the course curriculum and the technologies in order to ensure that the quality of the course is first rate and that the courses are available throughout Ontario."

The project is expected to start province-wide in the summer of 2001. Additional information will be published in Professionally Speaking and on the College’s web site at www.oct.ca as the project develops.


Council approves 2001 Budget

College Council has managed to hold the line on the $90 annual membership fee by approving the College’s first-ever deficit budget for next year. The deficit will be funded by the $2-million Reserve for Fee Stabilization established at the end of 1999.

At their October 12th meeting, Council members approved a $20.27 million operating budget for the College in 2001, compared to forecast spending of $18.87 million in 2000.

The Finance Committee estimates that the College membership will reach 178,700, up from the 178,000 projected for 2000. Annual membership fees will generate $16,083,000 of the College’s projected $18,383,000 in revenues. Total College revenues this year are forecast at $18,170,000.

Revenues from the sale of advertising in Professionally Speaking are expected to double from the 2000 budget and are now forecast to reach $600,000 next year.

Council members carefully went through the budget line by line as Finance Committee Chair Solette Gelberg explained that, for the first time, the College will run a deficit in 2001. Next year’s expenditures are expected to exceed revenues by $1.8 million.

"The reality of the College’s financial situation is that in expense terms, the organization is still not mature," said Gelberg. "This year, the Investigations and Hearings Department, in particular, was caught with substantial and unexpected growth in costs for discipline hearings requiring additional funding of $860,000. Next year’s figures, including the new staff we need for this area, will be $1.1 million higher than the Investigations and Hearings budget for 2000."

The Investigations and Hearings Department is faced with an increasing number of complaints, investigations and hearings as the public become aware of the role and mandate of the College. Legal costs are also increasing due to the complexity and the length of the cases. The College intends to actively promote its dispute resolution process to help offset some of its increasing costs.

"In reviewing the budget, the Finance Committee made sure that it respected the financial objectives set by Council that services will be appropriately funded to meet legislative requirements, that the College will provide good customer service and that it will adhere to principles of economy and financial efficiency and effectiveness," said Gelberg.

"Finally, we have to ensure that the College accumulates sufficient financial resources to ensure its stability and independence."

| 2001 Operating Budget |


Laurentian Successfully Meets Conditions

The College’s Accreditation Committee has recognized the work that faculty and staff at the School of Education at Laurentian University have undertaken since the College reviewed the program in 1998 by formally noting that the faculty has met the conditions attached to its accreditation award.

During the first year of the pilot project to initially accredit Ontario pre-service teacher education programs, the Accreditation Committee, following a review of the school of education, awarded the Laurentian University program "Initial Accreditation Granted with Conditions."

The faculty and staff of the School of Education at Laurentian University have designed and acted upon plans to address the specific items identified in the accreditation report, and made periodic progress reports to the College Registrar to inform the Accreditation Committee of the changes undertaken since the review.

As a result of the work that Laurentian University has completed since the review, the Accreditation Committee at its meeting on October 27, 2000, resolved: "That the Accreditation Committee formally note that Laurentian University has met the conditions pertaining to the 1998 award ‘Initial Accreditation Granted with Conditions’ for its one-year consecutive teacher education program."

"We are well aware of the hard work that Laurentian faculty and staff have done over the last two years," said former Registrar Margaret Wilson, "and I personally appreciate the positive way in which they have worked with College staff."

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