Ontario boosts funds as critics urge delay
Province unlocks millions to help online learning, fix ventilation and hire staff but teacher unions call plans unsafe
The Ontario government is upping funding for school boards’ COVID costs — as teacher unions up the pressure on the province to address their back-to-class concerns.
On Thursday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced $50 million for school ventilation systems, $18 million in supports for online learning and said he will allow boards to dip further into their reserves to hire extra staff or find extra space for smaller classes.
Boards will be able to access about two per cent of these funds, freeing up about $500 million, with the government filling in the $11 million gap faced by a handful of boards that no longer have any reserves.
Lecce, however, has not changed class sizes in elementary schools, which remain a huge concern for parents and educators.
But while teacher unions were warning of “imminent danger,” the province’s chief medical officer disagreed, saying he would not approve of reopening schools if he felt they were unsafe.
Meanwhile, in an email to Toronto District School Board trustees, Interim Director Carlene Jackson said much of its $131 million in reserves is already committed to benefits funding and carry-overs in IT projects and educational programming.
“Staff’s position is that because this money is already set aside for future obligations, using these funds would lead to future financial risks for the board,” she wrote.
“It would not be prudent or good financial management if we were to use a large amount of reserve funds to cover the entire cost of smaller class sizes.”
Jackson, a chartered professional accountant who in October will become the province’s first comptroller general, said the board is considering whether to use a small amount from reserves, plus previous provincial funding it must apply for, to hire extra staff.
Moving to smaller elementary classes of 15 or 20 students, depending on the grade, is estimated to cost $20 million for the Toronto board, Canada’s largest.
Lecce, speaking at Queen’s Park, said contingency funds are “rainy day funds in effect for extraordinary expenses and needs. We face a very difficult time, adversity in our economy and our society, and in the health of our children.
“Now is the time to put those tax dollars, respectfully, to work.”
He said he believes boards can hire and find space before school restarts, and said many have already been working on it.
“It allows school boards, in conjunction with their frontline workers, and parents most especially, to make those investments where they can’t and where they’re needed, and I think that’s important to have an element of flexibility and latitude.”
Lecce also announced that the province is mandating that for students who take part in online learning this fall, 75 per cent of it must be live video conferencing or “synchronous.”
The government has previously announced $309 million for staffing and personal protective equipment, among other needs, to help boards cope with COVID-19.
A growing number of groups, experts and teacher unions are calling for the province to delay the start of the school year.
The province’s four teacher unions are now calling for a meeting with the education ministry and Minister of Labour Monte McNaughton arguing the school reopening plan “fails to meet the requirements set out in the Ontario Occupational Health and Safety Act” and puts students and school communities “in significant and imminent danger.”
The province’s plan “does not take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances to protect teachers and education workers as is required,” says a letter sent Thursday, in part because it does not limit class sizes which would allow for physical distancing.
However, Dr. David Williams, the province’s chief medical officer of health, said he believes it is safe to reopen under the province’s plans, which include mandatory masks for students starting in Grade 4.
NDP health critic France Gélinas said Lecce’s announcement “offers absolutely no comfort at all to parents, school staff and students who are anxious and afraid about sending their children back to crowded classrooms in September.”
She also called the $50 million for ventilation systems “pitiful.”
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, said “this plan provides no assurance that boards will spend their reserves on decreasing elementary class size and fails to address secondary class size … it will do little to provide parents, students and educators the confidence they deserve.”
“I think that’s important to have an element of flexibility and latitude.”
STEPHEN LECCE EDUCATION MINISTER