MINISTER ON THE DEFENSIVE
Lecce pushes on with schools plans
With just three weeks to go until schools reopen, Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce is forging ahead with a back-to-school plan that is being fiercely attacked by education unions and some parents.
Lecce said Thursday he’ll allow boards to use their reserve funds to improve distancing in classrooms and promised $50 million to improve ventilation.
But he defended the plan as the most comprehensive and well-funded in the country and gave no indication he would budge on demands for smaller classes in elementary schools or a delay to the start of school. Lecce was joined by the province’s chief medical officer of health, David Williams, who said the risk of COVID -19 is much lower than when schools were closed in March. “If there was a risk I would not recommend schools being open.”
Four of the province’s major education unions released a letter Thursday saying the government was violating health and safety law by sending them into a dangerous workplace that “exposes our members to risks that threaten not just their own health and lives but those of their students and family.”
Also Thursday the association representing English public school principals called for a delay to the start of school to allow more time to plan and train staff.
Asked about a delay to school, Lecce said boards could stagger start days. The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has already announced it will adopt that approach, sending students back to school between Sept. 3 and Sept. 8.
One of the key issues in the backto-school controversy remains class sizes in elementary schools. Most of the province’s high schools will adopt hybrid schooling where students attend part-time in classes of about 15 students.
But many parents and teachers are worried about elementary children heading back five days a week to regular-sized classes. At many classrooms there is no space for the two metres of distancing.
Lecce said boards can draw on a total of about $496 million in their reserve funds to spend on things like hiring more teachers to reduce class sizes or renting spaces in community centres.
However, that doesn’t mean $496 million is necessarily available to spend, as boards may have other plans as they prepare for running schools during a pandemic. For example, the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board has an accumulated surplus of $36.8 million, but has proposed an operating budget with a deficit of $17.1 million drawn out of the surplus.
If the province were to lower all elementary classes to 15 students, as has been requested by many critics, it would cost more than $1 billion, according to estimates by the Ontario Liberal Party.
Ottawa parent Malaka Hendala says she is frustrated there appears to be no middle ground between spending a billion dollars and doing nothing to reduce class sizes.
She suggests, for instance, that sizes could be lowered in classrooms that have poor ventilation or in schools that are overcrowded, have small classrooms or little leeway to spread kids into the gym, as the government’s plan suggests.
Hendala said perhaps money could be targeted to ensuring that classes in Grades 4 to 8 stick to the funded average of 24.5 students. Now classes vary widely in that age group, with some smaller and others larger.
At Elgin Street Public School, where her son studies, for instance, the school has told parents the average class size in Grades 4 to 6 will be 27.5 students.
“This has to be a risk-appropriate response. Not ‘well we can’t make it perfect for everyone so we stop,’” said Hendala, who is the cochair of the Assembly of Ottawa Carleton School Councils.
Lecce also announced details about online schooling. Parents can choose to keep their children home for full-time online learning.
Students from Grades 1 to 12 learning online will have 75 per cent of their instruction in what Lecce called “Zoom-style” classes. Kindergarten kids would have about 60 per cent of the “synchronous” instruction, defined as “real time” learning that could use text, video, or voice communication.
There was more confusion Thursday on high school schedules. Some parents in Ottawa were furious to learn this week that the “50 per cent” in-person instruction they had expected had morphed into a schedule that was mainly online. The plan at both the Ottawa-Carleton District and the Ottawa Catholic school boards is for students to spend 2.5 hours in class at school in the morning, then head home for an afternoon that includes independent work online and “live” online instruction. jmiller@postmedia.com
As COVID-19 cases rise and fall, I am not staying away because I am afraid. I am staying away because you make it a hassle to shop. You welcome me back by treating me like nuclear waste.
L.D. CROSS, on shopping in the COVID-19 era.
SEE A7