September 11, 2025
Use of the L150 Copier
The L150 photocopier is meant for moderate use. To preserve the health and safety of staff working in the area we request that staff:
Restrict large print jobs (e.g., over 30 copies) from being completed on the L150 copier during the school day
Use other copiers in the building for high-volume or time-consuming print jobs.
Staff located in the lower levels (L and 1) can use the photocopier in the new staffroom in 116 of the west wing. It is set up for high-volume printing. Staff located in the upper floors (2 and 3) can use the photocopiers in the 3rd floor staffroom. These were recently moved to allow for high-volume printing.
Our goal is to ensure that the copier in L150 remains available for day-to-day needs of Student Services staff who work in the immediate area, and is in keeping with health and safety standards.
Curriculum Night is on September 16
All on-site staff supporting Curriculum Night are invited to pick up dinner at the Buffeteria from 3:45 to 5:45 p.m. on September 16. You may eat your dinner there or get it to go.
See here for the menu
See here for the schedule.
Thank you for all the work you are doing for Curriculum Night. We appreciate you setting up students and their parents/guardians for a successful year.
Late Start September 17
For teaching staff, this late start will be a Quiet Late Start until 10 a.m. The Quiet Late Start can be used to provide extra time in your morning for family or personal reasons or to conduct professional activities related to teaching and learning.
Operations staff involved in Curriculum Night should check with their supervisors about their responsibilities and schedule. Please note that no students should be in the building until 10 a.m.
Self-serve coffee will be available in both staff rooms, either room 116 on the west side or room 356 on the east side. There will also be snacks available in both staff rooms.
Planned Absences - Teachers
Thank you for submitting your planned absences to ADP. Please note that the Main Office does not receive the ADP notifications, and needs to hear from you when you are off on a planned absence, approved through ADP.
When planning an absence please complete all coverage requests on the UTS Data Hub, and email teacherabsences@utschools.ca. This will ensure that the Main Office is aware of your absence in the event of an emergency, or if considering an on-call assignment. We have updated the Teacher Handbook (pg. 23) to reflect this.
Class Coverages
Thank you to everyone who has been submitting their class coverages as stated in the Teacher Handbook. Just a friendly reminder to please submit the class coverages before 7 a.m. on the day required.
Staff Meeting Rescheduled From October 1 to 8
Given that Yom Kippur is October 1 at sundown and House Track was moved from October 8 to October 27, we are moving the Staff Meeting from October 1 to October 8 from 4 to 5 p.m. Thank you for your understanding and flexibility.
School Photos
Staff who had their photos taken on Orientation Day are invited to the Main Office to pick up their copy. The next photo day is Tuesday, September 16 and will take place in the Withrow Auditorium. Watch your inboxes for a schedule.
Reminder About Lunch Rooms for Student-Teacher Meetings and Assessments
Rooms 214, 318 and 321 are available during lunch for teacher- student curricular use:
Room 214 – Assessments
Rooms 318 and 321 – Student-teacher meetings
If you plan to use any of these rooms, please sign up here.
Note: The assessment room has moved from Room 216 to Room 214.
Staff Book Club
We are looking to start a staff book club and we want you to join! If you’re interested in meeting up with some of your colleagues once a month, please fill out this interest form so we can plan our first book club meeting!
UTS Library Updates
With the recent updates to the University of Toronto Libraries site, we’re noticing more staff and students needing to login with their UTORid and password to access search results and digital resources, even while on campus. We don’t want anyone to find themselves in a panic of needing this information and not having it (e.g. during on-call class coverage), and we discourage sharing your UTORid and/or password, even with other staff. To ensure you have what you need, please test the UTORid/password you have saved to ensure it works, or consult the decision tree to find out how to get both your UTORid and password set up. Stop by the Evans Library, or reach out by email, if you have any questions!
Fire Drills and Lockdowns
The first Fire Drill is on Thursday, September 18 at 10:50 a.m. Please read through the Emergency Evacuation and Lockdown Procedures carefully prior to the fire drill. All Block E teachers, please review the exit process with your class in the morning of the 18th, prior to the drill. On the 18th, you may share with the class that there will be an alarm at 10:50 a.m.
Students on spare will be directed to exit the building and meet with Mr. Hayto in the S5/S6 area in the parkette. Please note that in the procedures, for attendance in the parkette, teachers are asked to please stay with their classes and send one student "runner" to submit attendance to Iorek and Hijab. Operations staff should evacuate and ensure their respective Lead/Director knows their whereabouts. Operation Leads/Directors should report to Iorek and Hijab if they notice they do not know the whereabouts of someone in their department.
Please do not share this with students at this time.
The second fire drill will be Friday, September 26 @ 2:30 p.m. (block H)
The first lockdown drill will be Tuesday, October 14 @ 2:30 p.m. (block I)
The third fire drill will be the week of October 20
In accordance with best practices for preparation for a real emergency, not all fire drill times will be announced prior to the event. In addition, you may encounter artificial barriers to egress, for example blocked stairwells, to practice what might occur during a fire. In addition, we plan to conduct an evacuation from the Withrow Auditorium later this year (with advance notice). As much as possible, we are holding drills in different blocks throughout the year.
Thank you for supporting student, staff and visitor safety in the building!
Call for Vic Reach Teacher Hosts
Our partners at U of T’s Victoria College have reached out again this year to request teacher hosts for their enthusiastic student volunteers. Vic Reach is a volunteer academic outreach program offering University of Toronto undergraduate students the opportunity to work with high school students. UTS has been part of the Vic Reach program for the past five years. Melissa Shaddick and Maureen McCarthy both hosted students last year and gave glowing reports of the Vic Reach students who worked with them. Please connect with Jenny Pitt-Lainsbury, Vice-Principal of Academic Operations at jpittlainsbury@utschools.ca if you could host a Vic Reach volunteer in your class for the 2025-26 year. You would work out the schedule with them once you are paired and they could support your program consistently in one or more classes.
Staff Yoga - Coming Soon
Fiona will resume staff yoga on September 25. Please join us every Thursday in the Jackman Theatre during lunch for a bit of relaxation and restorative yoga.
Mindful Munch
Address Update Reminder
Please take the time to update your address in ADP if you have had an address change recently.
You can update your address in ADP by selecting “Myself” under the navigation menu, and clicking on the “Profile” page.
