Manitoba opposition, teachers’ union ask for more from province’s back-to-school protocols

While Manitoba’s government rolled out its latest back-to-school plans, the opposition NDP reiterated its call for increased spending on classroom safety measures.

The province’s education minister and chief medical officer of health released further details Thursday on its method for returning students to the classroom amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Schools will reopen on Sept. 8 — with teachers and staff returning Sept. 2 to get ready.

Meanwhile, NDP leader Wab Kinew held a press conference to rehash the opposition’s $260 million proposal to hire 400 more teachers, obtain new classroom space and increase cleaning — shortly before the provincial government announced its latest plans.

“We think that some of the issues that we’ve outlined in the past already are things that we continue to hear about from parents and teachers,” Kinew told reporters, emphasizing the NDP’s call for smaller class sizes.

“We’re just a few weeks away from back to school, and the government is still talking about guidelines.

“They need to be jumping into action; they need to be securing masks; they need to be hiring teachers; they need to be doing the renovations; they need to be securing additional classroom spaces.”

The teachers’ union, too, had criticism for the Pallister government’s fall school plans.

“The government didn’t go far enough, specifically regarding the use of masks,” said Manitoba Teachers’ Society vice-president Nathan Martindale in an interview.

The province strongly recommends the use of masks for students in grades five to 12 and staff and others in schools but stopped short of issuing a mask mandate, while the union wants the masks mandatory for all students from kindergarten to grade 12.

The union also wants the province to pony up funds for school divisions to hire substitutes if teachers fall ill — Martindale said the substitute teacher complement is already low.

Martindale said the union would like to see the education ministry consider staggering the start of the school year.

“When you have 190,000 children — students — all coming back at once, that’s a big impact on the system,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils said parents want more options for online learning — some high school students will have remote learning options because of elective classes interfering with the 75-student cohort system, Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen said Thursday.

“Parents are wanting to be heard and parents are asking for online education,” said the association’s executive director Brenda Brazeau, adding some parents can’t afford to homeschool.

“We still have a number of parents that are phoning into our office, emailing our office, saying they aren’t sending their children to school — they want the opportunity for online education.”

Brazeau said parents wanted the option to contribute to the plans.

“It would be nice to be able to have the parental voice — meet with the minister’s office, meet with the other school stakeholders,” she said. “Not after the fact.”

— with files from Shane Gibson

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