 |
Letter to John
Snobelen, Minister of Education and Training |
|
Committee
Responsibilities |
|
New Teachers
Qualifications Regulations |
|
Election Review
Committee |
|
First Certificate
Issued |
|
College Bylaws |
|
1996 Financial
Statements |
The announcement of the new Grades 1 to 8 curriculum
by the
Minister of Education and Training in June raised
concerns among members of the College Council about
the consultative process for the implementation of
new curriculum. At its June 20th meeting, Council
directed Chair Donna Marie Kennedy to write to the
Minister and discuss this issue. The Chair’s
report on the meeting with the Minister can be read
by clicking here.
| June 24, 1997 Hon. John Snobelen
Minister of Education and Training
22nd Floor, Mowat Block
900 Bay Street
Toronto ON M7A 1L2
Dear
Minister:
The Council
of the College has asked me to express our
concern that the College was not consulted
about the implementation of the new Ontario
Curriculum Grades 1 to 8 before you announced
it on June 13. The quality and availability
of professional learning for teachers who
must start delivering this new curriculum in
10 weeks is an important issue. We recognize
that our short history means that this
consultation would have required some effort
on the part of your Ministry. Nevertheless,
some specific discussions with our staff
might have provided practical advice on the
implementation of the new policy document.
The College
of Teachers recognizes the Ministry’s
mandate to develop curriculum. Ensuring that
teachers have the training and support to do
an outstanding job of teaching this
curriculum to our students is a key part of
the College’s mandate. Your
implementation plans for Secondary School
reform will provide an opportunity for the
College and the Ministry to work
collaboratively on appropriate implementation
and professional learning plans.
We would
like to arrange a meeting soon with you and
your officials to discuss how we can
establish an appropriate consultative process
on matters affecting the College’s
mandate.
Could you
please ask your staff to contact the
Registrar, Margaret Wilson, with dates when
you would be available to meet with us. Thank
you for your interest in these matters.
Sincerely,
Donna Marie
Kennedy
Chair
cc.
Veronica Lacey
|
Council Members
Take On
Committee Responsibilities
The ongoing
work of the Ontario College of Teachers is directed
by eight committees of the College Council. At their
first official meeting in May, Council elected
members to each of these statutory or standing
committees. Other ad hoc or special committees will
be struck as the need arises.
Chair of Council
Donna
Marie Kennedy
Vice-Chair of Council
John
Cruickshank
Executive Committee
Manages
and directs the affairs of the College between
meetings of Council.
Donna Marie
Kennedy (Chair)
John Cruickshank (Vice-Chair)
Sandi Bell
Paul Charron
Michel Gravelle
Marilyn Laframboise
Kathleen McFadyen
George Merrett
Harry Mulvale
Cecilia Reynolds
Clarice West-Hobbs
Investigation Committee
Reviews
the results of an investigation regarding the conduct
or actions of a College member. The committee
considers investigations relating to matters of
professional misconduct, incompetence or incapacity.
The committee will investigate complaints made by a
member of the public, a member of the College, a
school board, the Registrar or by the Minister of
Education and Training.
Harry Mulvale
(Chair)
Jackie Breithaupt
Doug Carter
John Cruickshank (Vice-Chair)
Lynn Daigneault
Michel Gravelle
Alfred Lorenzi
Discipline Committee
Determines
if a registrant is guilty of professional misconduct
or incompetence. The Committee may hear matters
referred by Council, the Executive Committee or the
Investigation Committee. The committee may also hear
an application from a member for reinstatement or for
a variation of an earlier ruling.
George Merrett
(Chair)
Pierre Calvé
Larry Capstick
Paul Charron
Wayne Cornack
Solette Gelberg
Nancy Hutcheson
Donna Marie Kennedy
Marilyn Laframboise
Kathleen McFadyen (Vice-Chair)
Karen Mitchell
Fitness to Practise
Committee
Determines
if a registrant is incapacitated and, if so, ensures
that the member receives appropriate treatment while
protecting the public. The committee may hear matters
referred by the Council, Executive Committee or
Investigation Committee. The committee may also hear
an application from a member for reinstatement or for
a variation of an earlier ruling.
Marilyn
Laframboise (Chair)
Nicholas Myrhorod (Vice-Chair)
Cecilia Reynolds
Frances Thorne
Clarice West-Hobbs
Registration Appeals
Committee
Provides
applicants with an opportunity to appeal a decision
of the Registrar rejecting their application for
membership.
Michel Gravelle
(Chair)
Jackie Breithaupt
Doug Carter
George Merrett
Nicholas Myrhorod (Vice-Chair)
Accreditation Committee
Acts
as an advisory committee to the Council on the
development of criteria for the accreditation of
providers of pre-service and in-service teacher
education programs. The committee ensures that
student teachers and practising teachers are involved
in experiences that allow them to achieve the
standards expected by the College.
The committee
forms panels to implement the accreditation
procedures for pre-service, in-service and additional
qualification programs and providers.
Cecilia
Reynolds (Chair)
Pierre Calvé
Larry Capstick (Vice-Chair)
Wayne Cornack
Lynn Daigneault
Donna Marie Kennedy
John Slade
David Somer
Frances Thorne
Standards of Practice and
Education Committee
Acts
as an advisory committee to Council on the
development of pre-service and in-service standards
of practice and the establishment of a provincial
professional learning framework to maintain standards
of practice and promote continuing competence among
members of the College.
Clarice
West-Hobbs (Chair)
Liz Barkley
Sandi Bell
Margaret Dempsey
Frances Hill (Vice-Chair)
Diane Leblovic
Harry Mulvale
William Rogers
Anthony Saldanha
Finance Committee
Acts
as an advisory committee to the Council on the
financial affairs of the College.
Paul Charron
(Chair)
John Cruickshank
Solette Gelberg (Vice-Chair)
Frances Hill
Anthony Saldanha
New Teachers
Qualifications Regulations
For decades,
teaching qualifications were outlined in Regulation
297 – Ontario Teachers Qualifications, a
regulation made under the Education Act. With the
establishment of the Ontario College of Teachers as a
self-regulatory body for teachers in Ontario, the
responsibility for teacher qualifications has been
transferred to the College.
The final
proclamation of the Ontario College of Teachers Act,
1996 and the filing of Regulation 184/97 –
Teachers Qualifications - on May 20, 1997, enabled
the transfer of the teacher education and
certification functions from the Ministry of
Education and Training. If you are already qualified
in Ontario, you remain qualified under the new
regulation.
Regulation
184/97 — Teachers Qualifications:
- provides a
"concordance" between the
ministry’s system of qualifications and
the College’s system of qualification
- enables
the College to deem all those who hold
Ontario Teacher’s Certificates or
Letters of Standing issued by the Ministry to
hold the corresponding Certificate of
Qualification issued by the College
- enables
existing teachers to become members of the
college
- ensures
that persons who completed their program of
professional education at a faculty of
education in 1996/97 are able to become
members of the College
- outlines
how new members will qualify for the
College’s certificates of qualification
and registration
- sets out
the process and qualifications a person must
complete to obtain basic and additional
qualifications from the College, including
Principal’s and Supervisory
Officer’s qualifications
- defines
the process for qualified individuals to
register as members of the College.
Almost
identical
Regulation
184/97 is almost identical to Regulation 297. Some
important differences are:
- replacement
of deputy minister and minister with
Registrar and College to indicate the change
in responsibility
- provisions
to update technical studies qualifications to
reflect existing ministry curriculum in
Broad-Based Technology
- two minor
housekeeping changes regarding additional
qualifications (addition of qualifications in
Religious Education and Actualisation
linguistique en français/ Perfectionnement
du français (ALF/PDF), change from Latin and
Greek to "Classical Studies")
- the
inclusion of Part 5, which outlines the
process for attaining qualifications as an
academic Supervisory Officer
- changes to
the names of the certificates.
Change
of certificate names:
| Former
Name |
New
Name |
| Ontario Teacher’s
Certificate |
Certificate of
Qualification |
Ontario Teacher’s
Qualifications
Record Card |
| Temporary Letter of
Standing |
Interim Certificate
of Qualification |
| Provisional Letter of
Standing |
Certificate of
Qualification
(Limited)Certificate of
Qualification
(Limited, Restricted)
|
| Permanent Letter of
Standing |
Certificate of
Qualification
(Restricted) |
Amendments
to other related regulations made under the Education
Act were also filed on May 20,1997 - Regulation
181/97 revoked Regulation 292 – Fees for
Ministry Courses; Regulation 182/97 amended
Regulation 309 – Supervisory Officers;
Regulation 183/97 revoked Regulation 297 and created
a new regulation – Letters of Permission.
Copies of the
gazetted version of Regulation 184/97 are available
from the College library for $3.40 – call (416)
961-8800 ext. 679 or 1-888-534-2222 toll-free in
Ontario.
Election Review
Committee
Five
recently-elected members of Council have examined how
the College conducted its first election and
developed proposed regulations and bylaws to govern
future elections.
Larry Capstick,
Doug Carter, Lynn Daigneault, Frances Hill and George
Merrett were elected to the Election Review Committee
at Council’s June 20th
meeting.
They are to report back to Council at the September meeting.
College Chair Donna
Marie Kennedy and Registrar Margaret Wilson present
new grad Luci Loisi with the first Certificate of
Registration in the College. Luci applied for
membership in the College after receiving her BEd
from the University of Toronto. She holds a BA from
York University and did her OACs at Don Bosco High
School in Etobicoke. She is qualified to teach French
and Individual and Society at the Intermediate/Senior
level and is on the supply list for the York Region
Separate School Board.
College Bylaws
The activities
of the Ontario College of Teachers are governed by
three categories of legislative authority. The first,
the Ontario
College of Teachers Act, 1996 (the Act), provides the
statutory authority for the College’s
activities. The Act describes what is required by law
and what is permitted. Regulations made under the Act
further define the extent of the College’s
authority. Bylaws govern the
administrative and day-to-day business of the
College.
Bylaw 2 is the
general bylaw of the College and governs such things
as:
- the
conduct of Council, committee and annual
meetings
- the naming
and responsibilities of officers of the
College
- banking
and finance
- conflict
of interest
- executive
delegation
- the
College publication.
Bylaw 3 is the
fee bylaw. It outlines procedures related to the
annual membership fee, application and evaluation
fees, and other fees and penalties.
The
register
Bylaw 4
describes the register. It sets out the information
that must be kept in the register – in addition
to that prescribed in the Act – and the
information that may be removed. The name shown on
the register is the member’s name used at
registration. In addition, the register contains:
- the
member’s registration number
- a notation
of a finding of professional misconduct or
incompetence (if directed by the Discipline
Committee)
- the date
of issue of the member’s certificates of
qualification and registration and the
expiration date, if applicable
- the
member’s basic and additional
qualifications as entered on the
member’s Certificate of Qualification
- the
program of teacher education completed by the
member and entered on his/her Certificate of
Qualification.
Members are
required to notify the Registrar in writing of any change in the information
that is kept in the register.
Bylaw 5 is the
forms and format bylaw. Among other things, it sets
out the format to be used in filing a formal
complaint.
Information
must be provided
The information
that must be provided by a member to the College is
set out in Bylaw 6. It includes:
- the
member’s business and home address and
telephone number
- the
member’s date of birth and social
insurance number
- the
member’s gender
- whether
the member prefers to use English or French
in his/her dealings with the College
- the
member’s full name and former names, if
any
- the
member’s country of citizenship
- a
description of previous teaching experience
and the identity of any other jurisdiction in
which the member is authorized to teach
- a
description of any academic program and any
program of professional education, including
programs leading to additional
qualifications, completed by the member.
If there are
changes to the information provided, the member must
notify the Registrar in writing within 30 days of the
effective date of the change.
The complete
text of the bylaws is available by clicking here.
| April 25, 1997 Auditors’ Report
To the
Members of the Ontario College of Teachers
We have
audited the balance sheet of the Ontario
College of Teachers as at December 31, 1996
and the statements of operations and
members’ deficit, and changes in
financial position for the period then ended.
These financial statements are the
responsibility of the College’s
management. Our responsibility is to express
an opinion on these financial statements
based on our audit.
We
conducted our audit in accordance with
generally accepted auditing standards. Those
standards require that we plan and perform an
audit to obtain reasonable assurance whether
the financial statements are free of material
misstatement. An audit includes examining, on
a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts
and disclosures in the financial statements.
An audit also includes assessing the
accounting principles used and significant
estimates made by management, as well as
evaluating the overall financial statement
presentation.
In our
opinion, these financial statements present
fairly, in all material respects, the
financial position of the College as at
December 31, 1996 and the results of its
operations and the changes in its financial
position for the period then ended in
accordance with generally accepted accounting
principles.
Coopers
& Lybrand
Chartered Accountants
Toronto, Ontario
|
Ontario College of Teachers
Balance Sheet as at December 31, 1996
Assets
Current assets |
1996
$ (000s) |
Cash
Account receivable |
415
21
436 |
Deferred
election costs (note 3)
Deferred
membership registration costs (note 3)
Capital assets
(notes 3 and 4) |
363
819
1,538
3,156 |
Liabilities and
Members’ Deficit
Current
liabilities |
|
Accounts payable and
accrued liabilities
Balance due to the Province of Ontario (note
5) |
1,630
1,701
3,331 |
| Deferred
lease inducement (notes 3 and 6) Members’ deficit
|
1,178
4,509
(1,353)$ 3,156
|
Approved
by the Council
STATEMENT OF OPERATIONS AND
MEMBERS’ DEFICIT
For the period
ended December 31, 1996
| Revenue |
1996
$ (000s) |
| Interest Expenses
|
4 |
Salaries and benefits
Professional services
Printing and communications
Other administrative expense |
207
241
150
55
653 |
| Excess
of expenses over revenue for the period |
649 |
Initial
establishment costs transferred
from the Province of Ontario (note
2)
Closing members’ deficit |
704
$ 1,353 |
STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN
FINANCIAL POSITION
For the period
ended December 31, 1996
Cash
was provided by (used in):
Operating activities |
1996
$ (000s) |
Excess of expenses over
revenue
Net change in non-cash working capital |
(649)
1,609
960 |
| Investing
activities |
|
Deferred membership
registration
Deferred election costs
Leasehold improvements
Office furnishings and equipment
Initial establishment costs transferred from
the Province of Ontario |
(819)
(363)
(1,043)
(495)(704)
(3,424)
|
| Financing
activities |
|
Province of Ontario loan
Leasehold improvement allowance |
1,701
1,178
2,879 |
Net
increase in cash during the period
Cash position - Beginning of period
Cash position - End of period |
415
0
$ 415 |
NOTES TO FINANCIAL
STATEMENTS
For the period
ended December 31, 1996
1. Ontario College of
Teachers’ Mandate
The
Ontario College of Teachers (College) was established
by an Act of the Ontario Legislature, which was
proclaimed on July 5, 1996.
The College is
an independent, self-regulating professional body
with authority to license and regulate the practice
of teaching in Ontario.
The affairs of
the College are managed and administered by a Council
comprised of 31 members, of whom 17 are members
elected by the membership.
2. Initial Fiscal Period
Pursuant
to the Ontario College of Teachers Act,
1996,
the College assumed liability for costs attributable
to its establishment amounting to $704,000.
Approximately one half of this cost comprises
expenses of the Ontario College of Teachers Implementation Committee, which reported to the
Minister of Education and Training in September 1995.
The balance relates to the project to support the
passage of Bill 31 through the Legislature, preparing
plans for the College’s establishment and
reporting to teachers on progress through the
Professionally Speaking newsletters from September 1995 to
July 1996.
During the
period ended December 31, 1996, the College organized
the nomination and election process for the first Council and made preparations to become
fully operational in 1997.
3. Summary of Significant
Accounting Policies
The
financial statements of the College have been
prepared in accordance with generally accepted
accounting principles. The more significant aspects
are:
Deferred election costs
Governing
Council elections are held every three years.
The cost of conducting these elections is deferred
and amortized over the three-year term of the elected
members.
Deferred membership
registration costs
To
establish an initial registry of members, the College
launched a campaign to acquire names and addresses of
Ontario teachers and validated eligibility against
the Ministry of Education and Training records. This
initial cost will be amortized over six years
commencing in 1997.
Capital assets
Capital
assets are recorded at historical cost. Amortization
is provided on a straight line basis over the
estimated useful life of the assets as follows:
| Computer equipment ... |
331/3% per annum |
| Furniture
and equipment... |
10%
per annum |
| Leasehold
improvements... |
over
the remaining term of the lease |
Deferred lease
inducement
As
described in note 6, the College will
amortize lease inducements over the term of the
lease.
Not for profit
As
a not for profit professional membership
organization, the College is not liable for income
taxes.
4. Capital Assets
| |
Cost
$ |
Furniture
Equipment
Leasehold improvements |
459,323
75,396
1,002,845
$ 1,537,564 |
The
College has contracted with an architectural design
firm to design, furnish and manage construction of
its premises at 121 Bloor Street East. At December
31, 1996, the capital asset costs reflect the
completion of demolition and partial occupation of
one floor. As these premises were not fully occupied
until January 1997, amortization of these costs is to
commence in the 1997 fiscal year.
The estimated
cost to complete the facility is $2.4 million for
leasehold improvements and $1.1 million for
furnishings and equipment.
5. Balance Due to the
Province of Ontario
The
Province’s financing of College operations was
being phased out at December 31, 1996. Pursuant to
the Ontario College of Teachers Act,
1996,
the ministry will, by order, direct repayment
according to a schedule, including interest, from the
date of the order. At December 31, 1996 no repayment
order had been made.
6.
Commitments
Premises
lease arrangements
In
September 1996, the College entered into a long term
lease agreement, which expires November 30, 2012. The
lease is for office space at 121 Bloor Street East,
Toronto. In addition to a rent free period until
November 30, 1997 (valued at $615,300), the College
obtained an allowance for leasehold improvements of
$2,356,891, which is repayable out of rental
payments. The first half of the allowance was
received in this fiscal period.
The estimated
annual rental payments, including a provision for
operating costs under the lease agreement, are as
follows:
| |
$ (000s) |
| Years ending December 31 |
|
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001 – 2012 |
90
1,078
1,078
1,078
14,157
$ 17,481 |
In
accordance with guidance provided by the Canadian
Institute of Chartered Accountants, the College will
be reporting an average rental cost for premises over
the term of the lease agreement and will be
amortizing the benefit of the lease inducements over
the same period commencing in 1997.
7. Subsequent Events
The
College continued to prepare for full operation in
the early part of 1997. Employment contracts have
been signed with approximately 65 staff. Computer and other
office equipment valued at $575,000 has been leased
with annual lease payments over a maximum of four
years.
