Province creates $52M fund for back-to-school safety

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This article was published 23/08/2020 (1488 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After months of being asked for additional funding to reopen schools with new safety measures, Manitoba Education has created a $52-million fund to help divisions cover pandemic-related learning expenses this fall.

Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen announced Monday the new one-time safe schools pot. Divisions can apply for funding to cover the cost of non-medical masks, medical masks and personal protective equipment for students, teachers and staff; additional cleaning and sanitization; increased school transportation capacity; and additional substitute teachers and educational staff. The grants will be distributed based on student population.

Independent schools will also be eligible to apply for funding.

“We are all working towards the same goal: to ensure that students can be in school, and to do so in a safe way. Today’s announcement is another significant piece of ensuring that that goal is met,” Goertzen told reporters during a press conference outside Laidlaw School in southwest Winnipeg.

Combined, the new funding and $48 million in total savings divisions found during the spring school closures equal $100 million. The province has already delivered 4.7 million masks to divisions, with more expected to be delivered throughout the 2020-21 academic year.

Goertzen said the additional amount reflects conversations Manitoba Education has been having with divisions about their financial needs. The province will continue to work with divisions to determine “pressure points” in the coming months, he added.

Ted Fransen, superintendent of Pembina Trails School Division, said he is “very pleased” with the creation of the new fund.

“It would’ve been nice to come sooner, there’s no question about that — here we are, two weeks in before school starts — but we greatly appreciate the effort on the province’s part to stand with us,” said Fransen, who attended the news conference.

Fransen said the division is projecting a need for personal protective equipment for all staff, additional teacher and custodian hires to cover sick leaves and enhanced cleaning and an expanded fleet of school transportation. Pembina Trails has also purchased approximately 600 video cameras for its classrooms, a costly expense Fransen said he hopes will be covered under the new fund.

While acknowledging more money allocated for schools is a positive step, both the Manitoba Teachers’ Society and Safe September MB group criticized the province for not capping class sizes to accommodate physical distancing.

Manitoba’s back-to-school guidelines require two metres of physical distancing “to the greatest extent possible.” When impossible, students are expected to stay in cohorts. In the latter case, there must be at least one metre of distance between students at their desks.

“Physical distancing is consistently pointed to as the best way to limit the spread of the virus … It makes no sense to have a lower safety standard in schools,” said MTS vice-president Nathan Martindale in a prepared statement.

The Safe September MB campaign echoed those sentiments. In a Monday release, the group also called on the province to give all students the opportunity to access ongoing remote learning this fall — one of the non-partisan group’s eight demands. By Monday afternoon, the group’s Change.org petition had collected more than 15,000 signatures.

MTS, which represents approximately 16,000 public school teachers, added the union is still waiting for a plan aimed at recruiting and retaining substitute teachers.

There are no rules in place at present to ensure substitute teachers work in a select few schools to minimize their close contacts.

Monday’s announcement comes after the weekend’s two consecutive record-breaking days of COVID-19 cases — 42 Saturday and 72 Sunday, bumping the province’s total case count to close to 1,000. (Following the announcement Monday, another 49 cases were announced.)

Despite the spike and a new active case count milestone, Goertzen said classes are expected to start province-wide Sept. 8.

“There is not a risk-free solution to anything when you’re living in a pandemic… but I think all of the evidence that our public health officials have looked at is to say there are far more benefits to students being back in classes than to not be back in classes,” he said.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie