Will school return in September? Will it be safe? It’s on the minds of many parents and education workers so they took action today (July 29) to make their demands clear.
The Education Minister is supposed to speak at 1 pm tomorrow (July 30) to announce the plan for the resumption of classes.
In the meantime, parents and education workers stood outside MPP offices across the province to demand a fully funded, safe return to schools, including the office of our member of provincial parliament for Northumberland-Peterborough South, David Piccini.
Wendy Goodes is a retired teacher and a member of the Northumberland Labour Council and Northumberland Coalition for Social Justice. She tells us that the actions of politicians lately is more than a bit hypocritical.
The concerned community were united in demanding full funding and real solutions to ensure a safe and equitable return to school. Goodes also mentions how this will affect children’s mental health.
They say the government has only added 7 cents per child per day toward COVID-19 school safety measures. This has left families and school staff without a safe plan to return to school in September. Goodes got a bit emotional, saying she’s scared for the children during these unprecedented times.
Goodes ended by saying that teachers are updating their wills as they return to the classroom (she referenced this article: https://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/views-expressed/2020/07/some-teachers-are-preparing-school-preparing-their-wills?fbclid=IwAR2TRO_gH06s9jgAySiouci-C58A5KLu7To2_pKi_q5nPoiQ1NFU4gzntpw).
During the last weeks before the start of school, they are taking this collective action to send a strong message directly to the government.
Actions took place at 122 MPP offices across Ontario.
MPP Piccini was in a meeting and unavailable for comment when MBC attended the protest today.
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Parents and education workers have developed the following demands to ensure a safe and equitable return to school:
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.
