Council Meetings

Council Summary — December 4–5, 2014

At its December 4–5, 2014, meeting, College Council:

• appointed Evie Basztyk-Benishek, OCT, to fill the Council vacancy in the Southeast Region Full-Time position
• received a deputation from Jim Palmer, OCT, from the Ontario Music Educators’ Association, requesting changes to certification requirements for elementary-level music teachers
• received a deputation from Simon Sutherland, OCT, asking the College to seek amendments to provincial legislation to enable those who are working in supplemental education fields outside of publicly funded schools to be able to nominate and run in Council elections
• recommended that the minister of education amend the Election of Council Members regulation to reflect the creation of a Governance Committee to replace Council’s existing Nomination and Election committees
• presented 2014–15 Scholarship awards to:
  • Hélène Monique Lefrançois as recipient of the Joseph W. Atkinson Scholarship for Excellence in Teacher Education
  • Rosalind Maura Michelle McCanny as recipient of the Ontario College of Teachers Primary/Junior or Junior/Intermediate Scholarship
  • Stephanie Kathryn Lum as recipient of the Ontario College of Teachers Intermediate/Senior Scholarship
• approved a motion that Council develop an ongoing professional development process to ensure that Council members keep current in matters related to educational and other legislation that impacts their Council roles
• approved a 2015 balanced budget based on revenues of $39,359,000 and similar cash expenses. The annual membership fee of $150 remains unchanged
• received a report from the Public Interest Committee on its research into the issue of ongoing professional learning for College members and its currency
• adopted eSCRIBE as the Council standard software to facilitate meeting document access and voting, effective July 1, 2015. Council members will be able to access this software online regardless of their location
• approved recommending amendments to the Teachers’ Qualifications regulation to the minister of education to help implement the enhanced teacher education program. The amendments would allow the Registrar to issue a Certificate of Qualification with conditions to applicants who have completed a one-year teacher education program once the new four academic semester teacher education program is in place as of September 1, 2015. Such applicants would be required to complete one or more Additional Qualifications from Schedule C to meet full certification. AQs completed for the purposes of initial certification will not be listed on the member’s certificate and cannot be used to satisfy any other requirements.