Ontario Teams in Jeopardy for 2012/2013?

[akoscielski3]

Originally Posted by Nick Lawrence

Could honestly be a viable option for some to many teams in Ontario if things get tough.

-Nick

Lets do it Nick! lol

In all seriousness, im sure teams could form small groups/Alliances of about 5 or so teams to share resources and help eachother out. Who knows, they could become life long partnerships.

There will be a couple rookies in windsor this year, so we would be helping them out.

[Lil' Lavery]

Originally Posted by Tom Line

I guess I still don't understand completely but that might be a difference in Canadian versus US schools.

Whether the teachers refuse to participate in extra-curricular activities or not, the team's money is the team's money and can't be held hostage. Unless the team's money is primarily coming from the school. Even in that case, here in the states many school administrations (upper management) don't fall under the union umbrella: as a result if you were here in the states you should still be able to get your funding.

There are many sponsors, including here in the US, that have restrictions on who they're going to write their checks to. As a consequence of that, many teams often have their corporate sponsorship routed through their school and/or have school-based accounts where they ultimately draw their funding. While some teams have officially become non-profit organizations, not every team has and some sponsors still wouldn't or couldn't fund such an organization without school affiliation.

That being said, it doesn't seem like the school's are threatening to hold the funding "hostage" in this situation (at least based on this thread). Teams may still be able to spend their money, so long as they find proper avenues and locations to work outside of school hours.

Originally Posted by Tom Line

Frankly, school absences are no big deal. It all comes down to a balance: is a handful of days at school (of which you'll spend thousands in your life) more important than FIRST?

That very much depends on the school system and the culture. While from our viewpoint as FRC mentors and engineers, we'd rather have students engaged in FRC activites, there are plenty of others who do not agree (often the parents and non-FIRST teachers).

[Ian Curtis]

Originally Posted by Lil' Lavery

That very much depends on the school system and the culture. While from our viewpoint as FRC mentors and engineers, we'd rather have students engaged in FRC activites, there are plenty of others who do not agree (often the parents and non-FIRST teachers).

My original high school had a policy where if you missed 15 days of school (excused or unexcused) you would automatically receive straight Fs. The reasoning was you hadn't been at school enough to receive enough instruction to possibly do well.

The valedictorian my senior year missed over 25 days as he was a very serious competitive skiier. There was some very awkward backpedalling done.

[Nemo]

I decided to create a thread in the "chit chat" forum about the Chicago teachers strike. I think it's an interesting subject worth discussing. People who don't want to be involved in that discussion don't have to visit the new thread.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1185643#post1185643


Please keep this thread about the Ontario situation. If you would like to have a civil discussion about the issues related to Chicago, the other thread is a place where you can do that without further derailing this thread.

[Gregor]

To give people a little bit of perspective, the FLL team that I am an alumni of/currently mentor, has been shut down for the foreseeable future. The messages below are from the coach of the team. An entire grade of students at this school will be (most probably) missing their senior year of FLL, while teachers continue to have their democratic rights abolished.

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

In all seriousness, im sure teams could form small groups/Alliances of about 5 or so teams to share resources and help eachother out. Who knows, they could become life long partnerships.

What a novel concept....

[pfreivald]

As a fiscally conservative teacher, I find this thread interesting. The only two thoughts I'm willing to put out there on this forum are:

A. Best of luck to the Ontario teams. Hopefully you won't need it in this regard, and everything will resolve itself. If not, some scrambling and hard work should enable you to continue your team.

B. The reason it's so hard to keep politics out of this discussion is because it's inherently political. This is why it's so important for people to become informed, stay informed, and participate in the political process... Avoiding politics because you don't "like" it surrenders what little control you have over the governmental process!

[Kaushal.K]

Currently many Jr. FLL & FLL Teams in Ontario are in jeopardy due to the potential strike and cancellation of extra curricular activities.

However, it is ONLY the public schools (per my limited understanding) who are going to strike. This means teams could try and team up with teams from the Catholic board schools and/or private schools.

I know (read as: hope) that all teachers who are involved in all FIRST competitions are very disappointed about being forced to stop their teams, but I also know in secret that they are all going to be building robots in dusty, hidden areas of their shops/class rooms!

[Tem1514 Mentor]

Just a few things I know are;
It will be up to the teachers if they will run FRC in the school this season. So far, I do know of teams that will continue this season in the TDSB. The TDSB will support teams with funds (as before) if the head teacher(s) will commit to running the program and for go any job action. And yes, there are many teachers that would rather give to students then not.

For teams looking to run in a TDSB school they MUST have a school teacher there for all meetings.

As a team mentor I look forward to working with my local team in any way I can.

Randall Thomas

[akoscielski3]

Tomorrow all students in high school and some grade schools in the Windsor Essex area (772's and many potential rookie teams area) will be leaving class to protest for the teachers and against the government. Hope this works out that we will keep Extra curricular activities!

[Travis Hoffman]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

Tomorrow all students in high school and some grade schools in the Windsor Essex area (772's and many potential rookie teams area) will be leaving class to protest for the teachers and against the government. Hope this works out that we will keep Extra curricular activities!

That should be...interesting.

[MrBasse]

Originally Posted by akoscielski3

Tomorrow all students in high school and some grade schools in the Windsor Essex area (772's and many potential rookie teams area) will be leaving class to protest for the teachers and against the government. Hope this works out that we will keep Extra curricular activities!

I see bad things in the future of this plan...

[Gregor]

Originally Posted by MrBasse

I see bad things in the future of this plan...

A similar thing happened in a Toronto school last week, and I've not heard of any negatives yet.

[Racer26]

Many Ontario Elementary and High schools have been having student walkouts in protest of the teachers taking away their extra-curriculars.

Effective? I'm not sure, but the media are sure having a field day with it all. The teachers and Queen's Park can't stay at odds forever if the students are going to keep walking out.

[Duncan Macdonald]

Lets attempt to squeeze something productive out of this thread.

Questions I was hoping to have answered when opening this thread:

What have other teams done in seasons with labour disputes/ years with unknown level of teacher involvement?
What were the operational issues you came across in trying to run a team separate from a school? (ignoring fundraising)


Questions I have for Ontario teams/teachers:

What levels of involvement have you been able to been led to expect from your teachers?
I expect the answers to vary on this one. Currently we have been able to borrow and steal robots from the school as needed during school hours for community demonstrations, etc. Is this the case at other school as well?

Speculative answers not welcome.


Information on how the mentors (sans teachers) of 2809 are proceeding in case anyone finds it useful. We are fortunate in that we are structured as both and a school club and a Queen’s Engineering Society club. We have transferred money from the school club to the EngSoc one as a precaution and will be running weekly training sessions out of a university building starting next week. The university people we have talked to have indicated we should not need additional paperwork for liabilities and are covered by the university. We will be enforcing a stricter code of conduct for the students since we are not at the school are now guests at the university. We have made no travel plans yet, electing to observe the labour situation and will be depending on parent involvement if the situation is unchanged.