[Froc]

I spoke my districts cupe head last month. If I remember correctly, she indicated that the provincial gov't has downloaded the responsibility of collective bargaining to each individual district…hope I'm remembering correctly, I AM on 'summer' thinking here.

I'd be willing to get a copy of our SD (Langley) collective agreement on anyones behalf, if it's true that they are public documents. I am on DPAC and think I could contact the correct people fairly quickly. Any thoughts?

dfroc@shaw.ca

[Froc]

Hi and thanks for the one peice of advice.

My son has no 'medical' team. He has HFA, we need help almost exclusively with his social needs. We are fortuneate that the teachers and T.A.'s have been skilled enough to help him and to help his whole class accept him and learn better social skills along the way. We work very closely with them to see what they are trying and to learn to model better skills ourselves.

I am a bit disappointed in this board. I thought that you'd all have great advice, but I got none except the above post. Do none of you belong to BCCPAC or DPAC that you understand at least the process to help get things changed? Or at least get listened to on a proffesional level? I think that what I'm going to hear in reponse to this post is lot's of statements about how "nobody wants our opinions", etc, and how I'm wasting my time. I do suspect I am wasting my time. I also think that the FEAT supported trip to Supreme court felt futile at times too, but let's use what tools we can.

How many of you considered all of the 'fruitless' avenues you've gone down to get help for a child, a waste of time? Every avenue explored was one avenue ruled out, right? At least, in the end, you learned something each time you looked into a new treatment.

I intend to go to CUPE as a delegate and ask to sit on their partner grup committe or simply to submit suggestions regarding longer postings or as suggested in the only reponse I got, 'exempt' status. My intent in my previous post was to see if this has been done before. Don't need to re-invent the proverbial wheel here.

Please anyone with helpful advice, or a suggestion that I can bring to them while I'm there, please post.

I know it's June and things are crazy calendar wise, but negotiations start in the fall and I need to start soon.

[Froc]

Hi All

I am considering a request to go to CUPE 1260, or their provincial equivilant as a delegate at their next exec meeting. I wish to ask them to consider in their negotiations this fall with the ministry, in the best interests of the child, to allow two year postings for children with specific medical dx. I think that I would add that it wopuld have to be with the consent of the entire IEP team.

I'm not even sure if they'll allow me an opportunity to speak, but have learned that if you work within the system collarboratively it's far more effective than yelling. Perhaps this has been done already…perhaps a letter will suffice, but I think a personal appearance is best. Any thoughts?

[Froc]

Have been following this board as a lurker regularly. I have a son going into grade 4 next year. His TA is one of 17 layoffs in the district his June. She is almost at the VERY bottom of that list of layoffs regarding seniority. She is admittedly, a new TA, but she has made good strides with my son, who really respnds well with her. We won't need anpther person to go through a learning curve with him again if we can keep her.

For those of you who have had yourTA's bumped, and I realize there are lot's of you…what's my next (perhaps futile, but nevertheless neccessary) step to insisting on keeping her? So far, I have collected the following notes…Ask for a Dr. recommendation, ask for delegation to Cupe board, I'm in SD#35.

dfroc@shaw.ca

[Froc]

May I suggest that you look at a new school as an opportunity for YOU to get involved in a community that will be your support network (and just plain good friends.) Of course, I don't know what your availablilty is a parent volunteer in the school, but I can be pretty sure that if you get involved at the PAC meetings or volunteer to do something as easy as decorate a bulletin board in the hallway regularly, then you'd get to know some parents. Given that you are new to the school, not only is this a great opportunity to have your son integrated, you, too, can now have an opportunity to be integrated as just like the other 'typical' parents and be involved with PAC activities. Every new school should welcome new faces to come out to PAC meetings at the least. It doesn't have to be a 'political' position, just an involved one.
I get the feeling that the parents at your other school were wary of you and your son. Try to give the new school a chance, and not walk in with a proverbial chip on your shoulder.
I am going through much the same thing at my own school. My third grade son has a TA for the first time, the other parents don't know that she's there for him, and assume now that their child will be receiving the extra help. They're right, to a point, the teacher will now have a fairer amount of time to give to each child instead of focusing on mine, but I have had to button up and let them think what they want, knowing that the TA and the teacher will be in the class, doing what's best and that they are the ones that are obligated to make sure his IEP goals are met, not the other parents. I also have a good relationship with a few other parents in the school and they've known my son a long time. Even when they do realize that the TA's there for him, they won't be surprised at all.

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