Saskatoon StarPhoenix

MORE MONEY FOR SAFE SCHOOLS

Sask. to announce funds for divisions, ‘aggressive’ COVID testing

- ARTHUR WHITE-CRUMMEY awhite-crummey@postmedia.com

REGINA Premier Scott Moe is set to make an announceme­nt Monday on Saskatchew­an’s back-to-school plan, including “serious” funding to assist school divisions and “aggressive” COVID -19 testing targeted at teachers and students.

But the announceme­nt is not expected to impose much in the way of new standards that would reverse the discretion the province has left to school divisions, including on masking.

Government sources close to the premier confirmed his plans to the Leader-post on Friday. They said he has spent the past 10 days “carefully listening to feedback” about pandemic preparatio­ns in Saskatchew­an schools and “evaluating the public response.”

“There’s a recognitio­n from the premier, and amongst key MLAS and advisers, that schools, teachers and parents are looking for more certainty,” said one senior government source.

Moe’s announceme­nt will include “a series of steps the province will take prior to the beginning of the school year,” the same source confirmed.

The sources would not reveal how much money will be made available, except to say that it will be “serious funding” that will come in different envelopes to address specific challenges school divisions are facing. It will “complement” savings the school divisions built up over the spring, they said.

They also would not explicitly confirm whether the money will come from an existing $200-million contingenc­y fund in the 201920 provincial budget. “It’s a pot of money that’s there,” one explained. The Saskatchew­an NDP has criticized that funding by arguing that school divisions do not know how to access it.

When asked to confirm the reports, the premier’s office responded in a statement: “Further safety measures will be announced in the days ahead, and the government continues to assess the Safe Schools Plan to further address student, parent and educator feedback.”

Patrick Maze, president of the Saskatchew­an Teachers’ Federation (STF), welcomed the news as “better late than never.” But he worries school divisions won’t have enough time to react to the news and spend the money on needed improvemen­ts.

Maze said he supports the idea of delaying the return to school for at least a couple of weeks.

“I think they’ve been in damage control from the start,” he said. “They came out with a core plan thinking they could manage the pandemic on a shoestring budget, and now they’re realizing this is very important to students and teachers across the province.”

Moe has not appeared at government news conference­s since Education Minister Gordon Wyant announced the Safe Schools plan on Aug. 4. That announceme­nt was roundly criticized by teachers and the Opposition NDP, who argued that the province should mandate masks, provide dedicated funding and ensure smaller class sizes to protect against transmissi­on of COVID -19.

Wyant later announced guidelines for school divisions that do choose to require mask use for older students when they cannot maintain physical distancing, though he still declined to make it mandatory across the province. He said different school divisions have different needs.

That’s unlikely to change. The sources said Moe remains “confident” in the approach the province has taken so far and, particular­ly, the discretion it has left to school divisions. That includes “comfort” with the masking policies they have implemente­d.

“There’s confidence in school divisions as local decision makers, with a recognitio­n of a need for some further steps to be taken to address the public concerns,” said one source.

“The focus would be on greater detail, particular­ly as it relates to the certainty piece, rather than a number of new regulation­s,” the source added.

The premier will aim to provide certainty on preparedne­ss, resources and testing, they said. That will include “quite an aggressive expansion of the current testing strategy,” which will be “targeted at teachers and students.” But access will also be improved for the general public.

Moe has already set a target of increasing testing capacity to 4,000 tests per day by the end of August.

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