Questions remain as UCP announces plans for possible school reopening in the fall
Posted Jun 10, 2020 7:09 pm.
Last Updated Jun 11, 2020 5:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CALGARY (CityNews) – Disappointment and questions are still up in the air as reactions regarding the UCP’s announcement on reopening schools in the fall.
“It’s a big announcement with very little said. All the details are going to come out August 1st. What was said under the radar is that this government is not going to provide any additional funding for any addition measures that school boards need to take to accommodate this pandemic,” said Barbara Silva, communications director for Support Our Students Alberta.
“It was very clear when she (Minister LaGrange) said school boards have within their existing budget the necessary means to make these accommodations. That means no new funding.”
“When we talk about, cleaning more surfaces, having more space, having hand sanitizer, that’s going to cost school boards money – and this government is not willing to provide it.”
“The second thing that I think is really important is the emphasis that this government has on the local school board autonomy. She’s going to dictate which plans school boards have, but then she’s leaving it up to them, how they are going to implement it.”
“To do that without additional funding is setting up school boards for failure. And that’s what this government has done time and time again is set up school boards for failure. So, we are extremely disappointed in today’s announcements.”
Calgary’s Catholic School Distract said in a statement that the school board is looking forward to the possibility of welcoming students in the fall.
“We know our classrooms may look a bit different in September and we will work diligently to put protocols into place that will support all public health measures, including strong hygiene and handwashing, routine cleaning and disinfection, physical distancing where possible and a stay-at-home policy for those that are ill.
“We have also received permission from Alberta Education and Alberta Health Services to proceed with Summer School, both online and through in-person, diploma-level courses. Students will follow all Alberta Health recommendations. We look forward to providing this learning opportunity for our students.”
The CCSD added, “The health and safety of our students, teachers and staff remain our top priority. We will continue to take direction from Alberta Health and Alberta Education.”
Before the pandemic, school boards were already seeing funding crunches due to cutbacks made by the government.
RELATED: Catholic school board facing $11M in cuts for 2019-20 school year
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Teachers, parents, and Support Our Students Alberta, are left to wonder how schools are supposed to handle additional costs to prevent the pandemic if the government doesn’t provide additional funding.
“It’s going to be a huge burden. There are schools previous to COVID, 400 students with one caretaker. How can we expect one caretaker to keep a school of 400 students clean? Some of the products they were using might not, and we were told by some caretakers, were ineffective against this virus. This is clearly setting up school boards to fail at this,” explained Silva.
“To talk about collaborating with school boards, there are schools’ boards including the Calgary Board of Education, that currently have an active survey out that doesn’t even close until tomorrow. So, when Minister LaGrange is collaborating, who is she collaborating with? Because she’s drawing up surveys left, right, and center and she’s making decisions based on surveys that aren’t even closed, without all the additional feedback. So this is very untrustworthy, it doesn’t have a lot of integrity and I think that it’s absolutely setting up school boards to fail by asking them to take on more with less funding.”
In terms of class sizes, Silva said it is going to be difficult to return to normal.
“How can we go back to school business as usual in September and not stagger classrooms? That’s the only other way. You can’t make the walls bigger; you can’t make the school’s classrooms bigger. So, the only other way is to stager classes.”
“We are going to have problems much like we’ve had in the long-term care centers. Is she addressing substitutes? What happens when a teacher falls ill? Are we going to have substitute teachers roaming throughout the school board? This is the problem we had with long term care centers.”
“So, she’s not provided any real details about the real concerns that parents and education workers have for the health and welfare of our students, and it’s disappointing and it’s infuriating.”
