Frequently Asked Questions of Prospective

Frequently Asked Questions of Prospective Educational Assistants (EA) Considering Employment with Sunrise School Division

 How many EA’s does Sunrise currently employee?

We have approximately 130 EA’s (12/13 school year).

 Do I need to serve a probation period? What if I have a term job already?

Yes, all new hires, even if you have previously been hired to a term position, need to serve a 6 month probation period.

If you have not completed your 6 month probation period prior to Summer Break and the division has not been satisfied with your work to date you will be notified prior to leaving for summer vacation that you will not be asked to return in September.

 What happens in June? Am I guaranteed employment in September?

All EA’s are laid off in June and many are recalled in September depending on the number of funded students in place. There are no guarantees of continued employment.

In the event that you have gained seniority list, but there is no placement for you in the town site you wish to be call for, you would be issued a non-recall letter with information on Article 24, Layoff and Recall. You will be placed on a recall indicating your preferred town-sites that will be used for placements as they become available.

Summer break does not constitute a break in employment in the event you are called back in September – ie you do not have to restart your 6 month probationary period.

 Is the Division required to rehire me in Sept if I have not completed my probationary by the end of June?

No. We obviously want to keep our effective EA’s employed with us and will do our best to do so but there is no contractual obligation in this instance and want our new EA’s to be aware of this in making an employment decision with us.  When completing your letter of preference for the upcoming school year, EA’s are recalled to locations/schools based on Townsites:

Townsites are described as follows:

1. Pine Falls, Powerview, Empower;

2. Lac du Bonnet, Greenwald Colony, Springwell Colony, New Directions;

3. Whitemouth, Reynolds, Whiteshell Colony;

4. Beausejour, Gillis, Grafton colony, Agassiz Adult Ed., Sunrise Educational Centre, Sunrise Business Centre;

5. Oakbank, Dugald, Anola, Richland Colony, Hazelridge, Heartland Colony, Springfield Adult Ed.

The Division will place EA’s at schools within each of the Townsites.

 If I have held only Term positions, why am I not on the seniority list?

You do not gain seniority or recall rights when employed as a Term educational assistant. This “means a person who is hired to replace a regular full time or part time employee or hired for a specific period of time or for the completion of a specific job.”

If it is your intent to gain more permanent employment once you have gained a Term position, you need to begin applying for permanent positions, positions that do not indicate TERM. You can do this by applying on permanent postings when they become available.

In May or June you will be issued a layoff letter quoting the remainder of the above Article: “Term employees are not covered by layoff and recall provision of the Agreement.” You would need to apply again for additional employment as a new employee.

 Why do you hire new employee’s if you have a recall list?

We usually have a recall list until at least December of each year, sometimes into February (not often, but does happen). Even though this does occur, annually we still end up hiring new employees as schools often require specific times and dates for students, ie, mornings/afternoon only or odd/even days only. These requirements sometimes don’t coincide with another EA’s current assignment and therefore we need to hire externally.

 Can I take time off during the school year?

Our preference is to take non-teaching time as vacation time (ie, Christmas and Spring Breaks). The Division is willing to consider leave requests during teaching time but only for extenuating circumstances.  Where do I find out more?

On lay-off/recall rules please refer to a copy of the collective agreement which is available on our website, www.sunrisesd.ca. The EA Union contact is Doreen Palidwor who can be reached at [email protected]. The Divisional HR contact for EA placements is Jennifer Baker who can be reached at [email protected]. The Divisional Student Support Services contact for student funding and student movement in/out is Heather Hyde who can be reached at [email protected].