MONTREAL, Que – The Quebec government asked school boards in 2009 to keep track of their H1N1 expenses as they doled out money for cleaning supplies, hand sanitizers and buses to bring students to vaccination centres.
But boards have learned the Education Department won’t compensate them for the pandemic expenses.
Josée Bouchard, head of the Fédération des commissions scolaires du Québec, said she was disappointed and a bit surprised by the government’s decision “given the hope that they created” through the accounting exercise.
While the government had said it wasn’t a promise to reimburse boards, Bouchard said: “there was hope because it’s really an additional expense that is quite big for some school boards.”
The H1N1 tab at the Commission scolaire de Montréal was $461,307. The English Montreal School Board told The Gazette last spring it had spent $592,640, but later revised that figure with the government to $399,970.
“It’s always difficult when you’ve already budgeted for the year and unexpected costs like this come up,” said Carolyn Curiale, vice-president of the Quebec English School Boards Association.
“We would like the money back so we could put it back into the classroom,” Curiale said.
School boards had to pay the first five days of preventive leave for staff who were at risk from H1N1, including pregnant teachers. Those costs made up the largest portion of the Lester B. Pearson School Board’s H1N1 tally of $280,997.
The government has told boards that they may be able to submit H1N1 transportation costs, Curiale said.
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