Reopening of schools

Manitobans For a Safe Return to School in September

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We the undersigned call on the Government of Manitoba to provide a safe and equitable school reopening by committing to:

1. Publicly-funded, school-supported instruction and assessment for all students, whether they are learning in the classroom or remotely from home. This requires sufficient staffing levels to not increase the workload of individual teachers. Medical documentation should not be required as a condition of access to public education for children who stay home;
2. Provide school employees who request to work remotely appropriate opportunities to support students learning at home;
3. Class sizes small enough to support physical distancing of two metres; 
4. Make mask use mandatory for all teachers, staff and students, providing exemptions where appropriate;
5. Assess ventilation and/or filtration systems in all school settings and follow all  recommendations for upgrades required to drastically reduce virus transmission;
6. Reinstate the mandatory two-week self-isolation order for all non-essential out-of-province travellers; 
7. Provide full paid sick leave to all divisional employees who self isolate while ill, awaiting COVID-19 test results or recovering from COVID-19, including substitute employees;
8. Hire additional supply teachers and educational assistants to address staff on leave. This will allow divisions to limit the number of classrooms and school contacts they are exposed to and exposing.

We know a safe return to school is possible - other countries have demonstrated this.

Aristotleded24 wrote:

This is a great example of how covid safety needs to be taken into context of everything else. If you reduce capacity on school buses, to transport the same number of children you need to do 1 of 2 things: more parents drive their children, or you put more buses on the road and at the schools. Driving children to school and children moving on and off the bus are both real safety hazards that need to be taken into account. More buses and cars at the school give more chances for bad things to happen.

..in this statement your trying to deal with imagined future problems without dealing with the in your face threat. my great niece's mother said she will not be sending her 7 yr old daughter to school because she is much to social for her to be safe. mother thinks to open schools the way they are doing in mb is insane. in mb to keep your child at home in times of covid you need a medical certificate. this is the reopening authoritarianism from the right. 

..your focus on people's fear is is a mistake. it is not the only driving force. parent's teachers bus drivers have a responsibility to the child..which you don't address. you just continue your pet theory as if that is the way forward. you don't like what the gov is doing resist and change. just like parents, teachers and bus drivers are doing. that is the real way forward. 

Education is a human right, but it certainly hasn’t been a COVID-19 priority

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Our governments are not only failing children, they’re failing parents, and mothers, in particular. Women have faced the brunt of this pandemic, accounting for most of our front-line and health care workers. Women have also represented the majority of pandemic layoffs and have returned to work at half the rate of men. Parents are at a breaking point – we’ve been juggling 40 hours of work, 20 hours of home school and 100 hours of parenting a week for months, with no end in sight. We’ve magically (barely) made the math homework happen. But it is not sustainable. Already, employers are pressing staff to return to work. Parents cannot leave children home alone, which will force those who can’t afford alternative arrangements to drop out of the work force. A loss of household income will devastate many families, especially single parents, and set back women’s equality by years. Our inability to reopen schools will push families into poverty, slowing economic recovery, increasing demand on government assistance and deepening inequality.

Parents understood the need to flatten the curve. But with restaurants, bars, golf clubs and gyms reopening, it is increasingly obvious that we have our priorities utterly backward. Education and child care must be our biggest priority, not a mere afterthought delegated to school boards and schools. Nor should governments hope online learning is a substitute for classroom learning. While online classes might be manageable for older children, evidence shows they simply don’t work for younger kids.

We need to be blunt here: There is no viable reopening of the economy without child care and schools. Actual leadership on this issue would see politicians at all levels of government committing to safely reopening schools and daycares to the fullest extent possible. They would work together with experts, and fund school boards to develop innovative, creative solutions to get kids back to in-person education, prioritizing vulnerable and at-risk children. This could include requisitioning properties such as recreation centres, local colleges and universities, and fast-tracking teacher trainees and pairing them with experienced mentors. Governments would communicate openly and clearly with parents, and develop contingency plans for the outbreaks that will inevitably happen as long as COVID-19 is among us.

Parents understood the need to flatten the curve. But with restaurants, bars, golf clubs and gyms reopening, it is increasingly obvious that we have our priorities utterly backward. Education and child care must be our biggest priority, not a mere afterthought delegated to school boards and schools. Nor should governments hope online learning is a substitute for classroom learning. While online classes might be manageable for older children, evidence shows they simply don’t work for younger kids.

We need to be blunt here: There is no viable reopening of the economy without child care and schools. Actual leadership on this issue would see politicians at all levels of government committing to safely reopening schools and daycares to the fullest extent possible. They would work together with experts, and fund school boards to develop innovative, creative solutions to get kids back to in-person education, prioritizing vulnerable and at-risk children. This could include requisitioning properties such as recreation centres, local colleges and universities, and fast-tracking teacher trainees and pairing them with experienced mentors. Governments would communicate openly and clearly with parents, and develop contingency plans for the outbreaks that will inevitably happen as long as COVID-19 is among us.

Brandon parents told smaller gathering limits don't apply to schools

As residents in Brandon Man. are adjusting to new pandemic restrictions that came into effect Monday, parents are trying to wrap their heads around how back-to school plans could be impacted.

"It's super confusing and extremely frustrating," said Brandon mother of three Nicole Oliver.

The Prairie Mountain Health region, which includes Brandon, has been placed under heightened restrictions after COVID-19 cases there have surged in the past two weeks.

The orange, or "restricted" level limits gathering sizes to 10, but the Brandon School Division says it will continue to operate under its yellow, or "caution" risk level plan, which has caused parents like Oliver to question why schools are exempt.

"I'm quite confused as to why they magically get excluded," said Oliver, whose kids range from Grade 2 to Grade 7.

"We've been actively avoiding very large crowds, we haven't gone to really anything all summer because we are keeping to ourselves and keeping our bubble fairly small but [now] we're going to go back to three kids in three different grades, essentially [exposure to] the entire school," she said.....

Pondering wrote:

Bottomline is the government only rules by the will of the people. Parents who believe they are risking the lives of their children or loved ones that they come in contact with will not send their children to school if they do not believe it is safe to do so. In Quebec Legault is saying truant officers will go to homes if children don't attend school. That works if it is just a few kids. It doesn't work if there is mass public disobedience, which I expect will occur.

..also it allows for folks of all political stripes to come together. we have seen the recent strikes by teachers south of the border how powerful they became when they aligned with parents. there are accounts posted in the resistance to trump thread. yet another reason for placing the thread under activism it places enormous pressure on governments/mp's wanting to get elected next term. forcing say the ndp to take stronger stands for example.

..petition 243,586 have signed.

Ontario Demands Better: Reduce Class Sizes to Keep Schools and Communities Safe

The Ontario government’s “plan” for reopening schools essentially amounts, in most elementary and middle school grades, to sending 30 students and a teacher back into a room for 6 hours/day with poor to no ventilation and probably only enough space for 30 cm of distancing between desks. This is shameful and demonstrates a reckless and disturbing lack of care for the health and safety of our children, teachers, school staff, and communities.

We have evidence from countries and regions that went back to school in the spring to show that it CAN be done safely, without a surge in cases. The evidence suggests that the way to do this (along with other measures) is SMALL CLASS SIZES. Denmark, Norway, Finland, Germany, Greece, Belgium, France, Switzerland, and British Columbia offer examples of this:

https://nationalpost.com/news/back-to-school-about-a-dozen-countries-have-returned-kids-to-classrooms-what-canada-can-learn-from-them

https://time.com/5868098/schools-reopening-coronavirus-denmark-south-korea-israel/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-share-article&utm-term=world_global-health 

https://globalhealth.washington.edu/sites/default/files/COVID-19%20Schools%20Summary%20%28updated%29.pdf

Meanwhile, Israel offers an example of a country that went back to school with full-sized classes, and had disastrous results, going from well below 100 cases a day to over 1500 daily (see articles linked above). (Note: some point out that it is difficult to blame this increase entirely on schools reopening, since bars and other public spaces reopened at the same time. It is worth pointing out that in Ontario, schools are also set to open within several weeks of bars and other public spaces)......

..from the Ontario Parent Action Network

#SAFESEPTEMBER DEMANDS

Schools can only safely reopen within a broader public health program that has successfully maintained low COVID-19 community infection rates. 

Governments must prioritize the safety of children and workers returning to class and expand social provisions such as affordable housing, food security, and strengthen rights to decent and safe work for all workers, instead of further lining the pockets of the most wealthy. Ontario can afford to fund safe, equitable, public education for our kids in September.

The Ontario Parent Action Network, Ontario Families for Public Education, and Ontario Education Workers United have developed a joint list of #SafeSeptember demands.

OUR #SAFESEPTEMBER DEMANDS:

1. Fully-funded 5-day in-class learning with 15 or smaller student cohorts. Parents who choose not to send kids to school, or in the case of further school closures, need adequate, guaranteed job protection and income supports. This will ensure a single weekly cohort for children. Additional staffing and space will be required such as the reopening of closed schools, and the repurposing of other community spaces. We will need to fight to keep these class sizes post-pandemic. 

2. Funded, safe, before- and after-school childcare centre reopenings which allow students to remain in their school cohorts. Funding to support a child care recovery plan as outlined in the Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care Report “From Reopening to Recovery” https://www.childcareontario.org/from_reopening_to_recovery_a_plan

3. Safe Buildings: New funding for more custodians, PPE, cleaning supplies, and infrastructure repairs such as ventilation, sinks, and water bottle filling stations. 

4. Funding for Health and Wellbeing: Free food programs and a public health nurse for every school to support a plan to respond to COVID-19 symptoms at school in a manner which is both responsive and respectful of the children.

5. Student Support: Funding for increased social and learning supports for students and families such as educational assistants, social workers, and child and youth workers.

6. Worker protections: 21 emergency paid sick days and full status for all workers including parents and caregivers in Ontario. This is essential so that students with symptoms of COVID-19 will be able to stay home from school without barriers. Flexible working schedules for parents and guaranteed income supplements when work is affected due to lack of childcare, layoffs, or illness, or further school shutdowns. 

7. Addressing Racism: We support community demands such as those put forward by LAEN, BLM and Parents of Black Children and the TRC: Police-free schools across Ontario, K-postsecondary. Improved funding for Africentric and Indigenous programming and curriculum. Decolonized curriculum that addresses anti-Black racism, white supremacy, colonization, and all forms of systemic oppression & racism. 

8. Equity: Additional funding to allow school boards to address systemic barriers, and inequity as they plan to reopen schools. 

9. Housing Security: Provincial ban on evictions, and a funded strategy to house, with dignity, all in need of housing now. 

Montreal-area kids back in school, parents and teachers nervous about it

As tens of thousands of Montreal-area children returned to class Thursday for the first time since the emergence of COVID-19, government officials spent the day trying to reassure parents and teachers following reports of a few infections connected to schools.

Outside Philippe-Labarre elementary school in the city's east end, many parents expressed mixed feelings about the return to class. There were happy cries of welcome as children were reunited with mask-wearing teachers, who directed them to walk under an arch made of balloons and into separate lineups.

"I think we all have a little bit of fear of what's unknown, but I don't freak out about it," said Cora Bridgeo, who has children starting first and third grade. "I have confidence in the government. I have confidence in our school system, they put a lot of measures in place."

The back-to-school period will test the government's pandemic plan, which has faced criticism from some doctors and parents' groups.

Already on Thursday morning, officials announced three employees at three separate east-end schools in Montreal had tested positive for COVID-19. Valerie Biron, a spokeswoman for the east-end school board, Centre de services scolaires de la Pointe-de-l'Ile, said the infected personnel were not in contact with students and immediately went into self-isolation.

The three staff members got tested on their own initiative, Biron said, "because they had either been in contact outside the school with an infected person or because they were experiencing symptoms." Biron said the board is asking employees of the three schools to get tested if they think they could have been infected.

A large teacher's union said Thursday there was a fourth case involving a staff member at a school on Montreal's north shore. Later in the day, a private high school south of Montreal sent an entire class home after learning a child's parent had tested positive for COVID-19.

Quebec's top doctor, Horacio Arruda, told a news conference he thought the private school, College francais, acted excessively cautious.

"I don't want people to think that every time there is going to be a case, particularly a case that is not in school, but who is a parent, we will stop education," Arruda, director of national health, said.

Back at Philippe-Labarre, officials said kids can expect lots of hand-washing, some mask-wearing and hallways and schoolyards sectioned off with tape to prevent extra mingling. Each roomful of kids will be kept in a separate bubble and masks will be required in hallways and in common areas for children in Grade 5 and up.

But Robert Gendron, a spokesman for Montreal's largest French-language school board, said in many ways things won't change.

"There will be a teacher with the same number of kids in the class," he said in an interview outside the school. "They will attend all the classes that they regularly attend. We will be able to transport the kids on the bus at the same level we're always doing."

The government has faced criticism from groups who say the plan doesn't go far enough and doesn't include a distance-learning option for parents who prefer to keep their children home.

More than 150 doctors and scientists also published an open letter this week urging Francois Legault's government to require social distancing within classrooms, mask-wearing for all students, and to oblige schools to screen children for symptoms of COVID-19.

Their voices have been added to those of parents' groups, who have expressed concerns over large class sizes, poor school ventilation systems and a lack of online options.....

****PHONE SCRIPT****

Hello, my name is ____________.

I am calling to express my support for the Safe September Manitoba petition to:

[**Premier Brian Pallister**

Legislature building: (204) 945-3714
Premier@leg.gov.mb.ca

Constituency office: (204) 489-0828
info@brianpallister.com
----

**Minister Kelvin Goertzen, Minister of Education**
Legislature building: (204) 945-3720
minedu@leg.gov.mb.ca

Constituency office: (204) 326-5763
kelvin@kelvingoertzen.com
----

**Minister Cameron Friesen, Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living**

Legislature building: (204) 945-3731
minhsal@leg.gov.mb.ca

Constituency office: (204) 822-1088
info@cameronfriesen.ca
----

**Minister Heather Stefanson, Minister of Families (and Deputy Premier)**

Legislature building: (204) 945-4173
minfs@leg.gov.mb.ca

Constituency office: (204) 487-0013
tuxconst@mymts.net

Your MLA.
Find their contact info here: https://www.electionsmanitoba.ca/en/Voting/MyVotingInfo ]

'We'll never be able to keep up': School custodians fear burnout, fatigue due to understaffing

School custodians in Ontario say they were already short staffed prior to the pandemic, and now, with additional COVID-19 related cleaning measures, they fear burnout and fatigue will compound the problem. 

"The microscope that we're going to be under should an outbreak happen is going to be tremendous, but we don't feel like we have enough of the resources," said Richard Brown, a custodian with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board (OCDSB). 

Brown said custodians are being asked to wipe down all touch points twice a day. Once a classroom has been emptied, to wipe down all touch points would take about two to four minutes, he estimates. Depending on the number of classrooms in any given building, repeating that task throughout the day in each room could add hours to a custodian's workload. 

Some elementary schools, which typically operate with only one chief custodian during the school day, have over 30 classrooms with 30 desks in each room, Brown said. To wipe down 30 rooms twice would amount to an additional two to four hours of work, not accounting for portables and common touch points in hallways like railings. 

Brown estimates that to comfortably meet COVID-19 cleaning requirements within the timeframe of eight hour shifts, the OCDSB would need to hire between 100-120 new workers. 

"Over the last 20 years, our department has been cut to the bone," said Brown. "Something has to give." ....

B.C. teachers want federal funding used to help reduce class sizes

The B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF), a union that represents 41,000 public school teachers across the province, is urging the provincial government to use federal funding to reduce class sizes as schools gear up to reopen next week.

The union said it hasn't been consulted by the B.C. government yet about how $242.36 million in added federal funding will be allocated, as the Sept. 10 opening date fast approaches.

The province received funding from the federal government to help schools deal with reopening under heightened health and safety standards amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The union urged the government to use the funding to reduce class sizes, which it says will allow schools to properly follow social-distancing guidelines.

“We need to do things differently and that starts with making sure staff and students can actually achieve physical distancing in our schools and classrooms,” said BCTF President Teri Mooring in a statement on Aug. 26. “Under the government’s current plan, that physical distancing just isn’t possible.”

B.C.’s Ministry of Education said provincial funds had already been put to use for schools to get non-medical masks, hand-washing stations, physical barriers and cleaning supplies.

With the additional federal funding on top of their existing $45.6 million investment, the ministry said it is looking into enhancing cleaning protocols and increasing capacity for remote learning, but not increasing capacity within schools.

The province’s back-to-school plan has been described as “rushed” by the union. Two parents have taken the ministry to court, citing COVID-19 safety concerns in the lawsuit, with the hope of delaying the return date.

Teachers were also critical of a back-to-school public service announcement from the B.C. government, saying it was misleading parents regarding what classrooms will look like. The 30-second ad, which features the province’s health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, shows six students in a spacious classroom. In reality, teachers said, about 30 kids could be in one classroom.

In their recommendations for how federal funding should be allocated, the teachers’ federation said smaller class sizes are a priority, along with strict mask regulations and more funding for cleaning services.....

'Why don't they pitch in?': Ontario premier unleashes war of words with education union leader

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is ratcheting up his war of words with the head of one of Ontario's largest teacher unions, telling reporters that he would rather listen to doctors and epidemiologists than someone "with a degree in English literature who thinks he is a doctor."

Ford has been engaged in a prolonged dispute with the leaders of Ontario's four teacher unions over his government's back-to-school plans.

The unions have said that the plans fail to institute specific standards “around physical distancing, cohorting, ventilation, and transportation” and have vowed to file formal appeals with the labour relations board over what they say is a violation of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.

quote:

Bischof, who has an English literature degree from Trent University as well as a Masters of Arts and Bachelor of Education degree from Queen’s University, has been outspoken about the government's return to school plans in the past and last week took to Twitter to accuse Ford of "belittling educators."

He has also stressed that teachers only want the same safeguards as other frontline workers, such as a minimum of two metres of physical distancing in the classroom.

"No worker in the province of Ontario should be expected to sacrifice their health and safety, especially when there are such obvious measures the government could be taking to reduce the risk and prevent potential tragedies," Bischof said in a press release issued earlier this week.

She feels parents need to have conversations about the risks associated with COVID-19 and the return to school, but also talk about the risks associated with keeping kids home as well. 

..parents are having those conversations. it boggles the mind that someone thinks otherwise. to not understand that the political and economic system that was so undemocratic, so brutalised peoples, carried out neoliberal transfers of wealth upward before the pandemic was not now transformed into caring entities.

..those very same systems/powers want parents back to work so the economy can get back on track is the reason schools are being forced to open. if those systems/poweres cared about the kids there would be distancing in the classrooms and all elements of schools. there would be masks for all that are able to wear one. that is not happening so parents and teachers are rightfully concerned. they are trying to have discussions with governments but there is no talking to the likes of our premiers who have other agendas. 

..without a step by step safety program that protects against covid you are throwing kids into a frying pan and hoping for a good outcome. this is a bankrupt intellectual notion. it reeks of desperation.      

My three kids are going back into classrooms. As a parent with asthma and a heart condition, I’m afraid it may kill me

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Yes, I do have options. I can keep my children home to spend several hours in front of a screen, or send them to crowded classrooms. But what’s become clear to me amid this confusion is that my younger two will not benefit from online learning. Away from their learning groups of peers — with teachers who have seen them grown up and know their strengths and weaknesses — I know that even if I shift all my working hours to evenings and weekends and somehow convince them to sit in front of a screen for several hours a day, how much will truly be retained is questionable. This leaves me with one option, and that’s to send them to school.

My kids are healthy, they are largely low-risk, however as more and more data is churned out by experts daily on this relatively new virus, it is becoming clearer that children, while low risk, are also great carriers.

There lies my problem.

I am a 41-year-old mother with asthma and an autoimmune disease. In addition, my heart was damaged after a flu I caught in 2017 — something I discovered while working in a busy classroom when I suddenly felt weak, was unable to stand up and passed out. I was brought by ambulance to St. Michaels Hospital. I still require ongoing cardiac care to this day.

These scares have taught me to try to live my life as safely as possible during this pandemic, but as I watch as COVID-19 case numbers creep up daily and consider the possibility of my kids being exposed to a minimum of 75 other children in close quarters, I worry about my chances. I go to sleep thinking about catching COVID-19 and dying alone in a hospital with only a screen to say my last goodbyes to my family via Zoom. It may seem dramatic, but if I catch it, my odds of survival under an overburdened health care sector don’t seem very positive.

Another factor? My partner works full-time in a school as an educational assistant in a different school board. My kids also have a blended family and their sister goes to another school in yet another school board. As keeping my kids away from either of their families is not an option, there is increased exposure and little to no direction about what to do if one of our schools has a case of COVID-19, or if we will even be told.....

..those very same systems/powers want parents back to work so the economy can get back on track is the reason schools are being forced to open.

Doug Ford and neoliberalism: ‘Opening Ontario’ by shutting down democratic process

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Insulating neoliberalism from critique before and during COVID-19

The rhetoric employed consistently by Ford during the pandemic has echoed his political platform of “Opening Ontario for Business” by prioritizing the re-opening of the economy amidst a public health crisis. As detailed in previous Canadian Dimension articles, this has resulted in the continued undermining of health care policy and attacks on tenants to reconsolidate the power of landlords.

The rising role of public health experts and the medical community during this crisis has become a procedural thorn in the side of Ford’s plans for austerity and the implementation of neoliberal policies. Time allocation has still been used during the crisis, but barely due to a government clearly worried about criticism for ignoring the opposition and public health experts in an environment where increased attention is being paid to the government’s (in)actions. In fact, Ford reached career-high popularity during the pandemic for what many claimed was competency as premier, rather than for doing a ‘good job’ (bordering Trump’s American catastrophe obviously played into this).

This is why many were stunned when Ford tabled Bill 195, Reopening Ontario (A Flexible Response to COVID-19), a law designed to remove the legal designation of state of emergency while granting the majority government the indefinite ability to pass laws using emergency powers. This removes all accountability procedures that are in place during a state of emergency and grants all of the powers to Ford that he can demand of the status.

quote:

While neoliberalism has consolidated a sort of permanent crisis state, COVID-19 and both its associated public health and financial crises has compounded this further. And while neoliberalism and right populism attack liberal democratic procedures and institutions, a public health crisis demanding fast decision-making can act as a camouflage for continued attacks against an already weakened welfare state.

Professor Tom McDowell understands this as part of the bigger picture of “neoliberal parliamentarism,” which is the use of procedure to accommodate and conceal the implementation of contentious neoliberal austerity policies. He argues, “The emergence of the crisis state has witnessed the withering away, and increased obsolescence, of traditional liberal political institutions, as the social contract from which they drew legitimacy is undermined and replaced with a more repressive state apparatus.” This more repressive state exists on the streets where protestors are attacked by police, online and in the real world where surveillance plagues our lives, and in government itself, designed to silence critique and resistance both within and without the state.

..again ari you solely rely on fear as a driver without ever a dressing the concerns. i have 2 sons and i worry about them though they are 40 and 45. i will always worry about them as a parent. that does not prevent me from making objective decisions. you owe it to the parents and teachers to address those concerns and not brush them off as just fears. 

..as for the kids "low risk" you are not the arbiter of covid no matter how many posts you submit or times you say it. you don't respect people who have different opinions than you. you say bullshit. it's parents who will decide what is best for their children. not you. 

..in spite of me producing the neoliberal piece. the piece that can apply to any province in canada. the piece that lays out the priorities of opening up. you reject my statement outright. i suggest you've ignored the connections i've made. 

..as for the left failing maybe you have a point. it is my personal opinion though that you don't. it's just another tool in your tool chest. i've seen you use it before.

Looks like we're even.

..no we are not. you've been coming at this from a libertarian position..on a left leaning board.