OSSTF/FEESO Celebrates Support Staff Appreciation Day

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 4, 2011) - Today, the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation joins with others across Ontario to celebrate the contributions of educational support staff workers to the education of students as part of Education Week, said Ken Coran, President of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF/FEESO).

"OSSTF/FEESO founded the first Education Week in Ontario over eighty years ago to celebrate the excellence of public education. In 1999, OSSTF/FEESO also introduced Support Staff Appreciation Day as an integral part of Education Week to ensure that the essential role played by all educational workers was fully recognized.

Classrooms are much more than four walls with students at desks and teachers at the front of the room. It takes a complete education team to educate students today and provide them with the skills, resources and supports they need to be successful. It is the hard work of these education teams in schools and universities which ensures a safe, clean and welcoming environment for learning. Secretaries, custodians, technicians, and plant support personnel, to name a few, all contribute to the well-being of our students.

Educational assistants, social workers, attendance counselors, psychologists and speech language pathologists and other members of the team provide the necessary support for our special needs students.

It is fitting that we recognize that the whole school or university is a classroom and that it takes the efforts of many individuals to ensure that students' needs are met within our educational system. We ask that all Ontarians, especially students and parents, help us celebrate Support Staff Appreciation Day by expressing their gratitude to educational support staff for the roles they play in inspiring confidence in our students and helping them build their futures," concluded Coran.

OSSTF/FEESO, founded in 1919, has 60,000 members across Ontario. They include public high school teachers, occasional teachers, educational assistants, continuing education teachers and instructors, early childhood educators, psychologists, secretaries, speech-language pathologists, social workers, plant support personnel, university support staff, and many others in education.