Edmonton Journal

NDP uses mockup to illustrate distancing challenges

- LISA JOHNSON lijohnson@postmedia.com twitter.com/reportrix

Alberta’s NDP Opposition and teachers assembled a makeshift classroom to again call on the UCP government to invest $1 billion for extra teachers, support staff and space.

At a news conference with teachers Tuesday, NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman stood among improvised desks for 30 students in a 860 square-foot space, the mandated size for new classroom builds in Alberta, to show it would be impossible for students to follow public health advice to physically distance.

“We know that if students are sitting at these two desks, and one turns around to talk to the other, which happens all the time in classrooms, that they are often within a metre of each other,” said Hoffman.

She said it was important to get kids back to school, but the province needed a cap of 15 students per classroom to ensure safety.

“For the government to say it’s too tough to even try is the epitome of laziness,” said Hoffman.

Renee Englot, an Edmonton junior high teacher, joined the news conference to say it’s impossible for classrooms to follow the two-metre separation of physical distancing Albertans have come to expect. Her class list this year will be up to 35 students, and Englot said she was worried that for some, the first sight of the classroom will create a spike of anxiety.

“I suspect they won’t be back on Day 2,” she said.

Teacher Heather Quinn, president of Edmonton Public Teachers local 37, said teachers want to see their students and to be back working in classrooms, but many have grave safety concerns.

“This government and ministry of education has acted as if the return to school in the fall is business-as-usual. However it is anything but,” Quinn told reporters at the same conference.

A lack of consultati­on, funding and resources for a safe school re-entry means educators are being asked to do too much with too little, Quinn said.

The UCP government announced $10 million towards sanitizati­on supplies and masks for students and teachers last week and in a Saturday statement said it had purchased 1.7 million masks to ensure students and staff had at least two reusable masks each.

Premier Jason Kenney said at an unrelated news conference Tuesday he thinks most parents will be providing masks.

“But we are concerned that in some cases kids may forget masks, they might lose them, and we don’t want them being turned away at the school doors,” he said.

Quinn said that’s not enough, and the government is indiscrimi­nately applying public health advice that could limit transmissi­on of COVID -19.

“The government knows this. It’s the same reason why they’ve limited the number of MLAS in the House, it’s the same reason many of them have taken the measure of only allowing people into their constituen­cy offices by appointmen­t,” said Quinn.

Colin Aitchison, press secretary to Education Minister Adriana Lagrange, said the NDP’S “stunt” was another example of the party’s attempts to undermine chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw’s expert advice.

“It is completely infeasible to cap class sizes at 15, as they have proposed. In order to accomplish this, Alberta would need to hire 13,000 teachers by September and build or open 13,000 new classroom spaces,” said Aitchison.

Hoffman said she was confident in Hinshaw, but Alberta’s top doctor can only offer advice to support the government’s priorities and decisions — not criticize policy or publicly call for specific class-size caps.

Provincial funding that forced the temporary layoffs of some 20,000 education workers including educationa­l assistants in April has been restored, but budget restrictio­ns in the coming year have forced the permanent layoffs of more than 600 Edmonton Public Schools employees, and 137 staff at Edmonton Catholic.

With schools fast approachin­g the start of classes, Hoffman said an explosion in enrolments for homeschool­ing or private programs would be the result of the government underminin­g confidence in the public system.

 ?? DAVID BLOOM ?? Alberta NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman shows off a makeshift classroom created to illustrate the difficulti­es teachers and students will face in observing two-metre social distancing rules during a return to school this fall.
DAVID BLOOM Alberta NDP education critic Sarah Hoffman shows off a makeshift classroom created to illustrate the difficulti­es teachers and students will face in observing two-metre social distancing rules during a return to school this fall.

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