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in si de ha lto n. co m O ak vi lle B ea ve r | T hu rs da y, Ju ly 8, 20 21 | 14 It's in your hands. Make sure your favourite business or professional is nominated for the Oakville Beaver's 2021 Readers' Choice Awards. The Oakville Beaver Readers' Choice Awards were created so you can tell us which local businesses and service providers are the best at what they do. Once the nominations close on July 11, 2021, the nominees will be shortlisted and you will have the chance to vote for your favourite. Help make your favourite local business become a Oakville Beaver Readers' Choice. NomiNatioNs NowopeN Start nominating now at insidehalton.com/oBRC 2021 The Bruce Trail Conservancy has hired six Trail Ambassadors to perform visitor outreach and litter clean-ups in three re- gions, including Hamilton/Halton. As more people seek the physical and mental benefits of walking in nature, some areas of the Niagara Escarpment have be- come hotspots, seeing more human- caused impact than the environment can handle, according to a press release issued by the organization. "The high volumes of trail users include those who may not be familiar with trail et- iquette. Litter, trespassing, and other poor behaviours are impacting the trail, the en- vironment, other trail users, and landown- ers whose property the Bruce Trail cross- es." Together with Bruce Trail Club volun- teers, the summer staff will visit busy trail destinations to promote leave no trace practices and safe trail use. They'll also be distributing Hike it. Love it. Keep it Clean badges to those who join them in picking up litter or who are demonstrating low im- pact hiking. To encourage safe and responsible hik- ing, the Bruce Trail Conservancy has also created some helpful online tips: https:// brucetrail.org/pages/hiking-safely-re- sponsibly "More people using the Bruce Trail is not a bad thing, in itself. It is wonderful that people have discovered the Bruce Trail as a way to connect with nature" ex- plains Adam Brylowski, manager of con- servation and trail. "For these trails and protected areas to continue to thrive, the Bruce Trail Conservancy, its partners, and all its supporters must work together to ensure that the cumulative impact of all our visits is minimized". NEWS POOR HUMAN BEHAVIOUR IMPACTING BRUCE TRAIL TRAIL AMBASSADORS HIRED FOR VISITOR OUTREACH It came as quite a surprise to some par- ents and students. As the 2020-21 school year wrapped up, a lot of local students and parents with the Halton Catholic District School Board (HCDSB) noticed there were grade marks but no comments on the report cards. This stood out in a document that gen- erally contains a number of personalized remarks. Parents who contacted InsideHalton- .com said they initially thought the lack of comments was an oversight. So, what's going on here? JUST THE FACTS: • On March 22, the Halton Ontario En- glish Catholic Teachers Association (OEC- TA), which represents many of the teach- ers at the board, began a job action. As part of the current phase of job action, perma- nent teachers were directed by OECTA not to prepare or input comments on studen- t report cards. The effect of that was most HCDSB elementary students received re- port cards with grades but no comments. • There were exceptions. Notably, stu- dents with Long Term Occasional Teach- ers would still receive a report card with both comments and marks. • Kindergartners received single sen- tence comments in their reports. • Children with an alternative report card - ones without a grade mark - also re- ceived single comments per section. • As part of the bargaining process back in January, Halton's permanent Catholic Elementary teachers voted 94.1 per cent in favour of a strike. That decision doesn't mean teachers necessarily be in a strike position, but the vote is one step that could result in job action. • Back in March 2020, a central agree- ment was reached between the province and OECTA. From that point, negotiations between individual boards and teacher bargaining units have continued. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE? NO COMMENTS INCLUDED ON CATHOLIC BOARD REPORT CARDS