THUNDER BAY - Local teacher’s union representatives are disappointed with the lack of a plan for schools in the province’s roadmap to reopening.
“I have to say, I’m no longer surprised by anything the premier does or doesn’t announce,” said Mike Judge, president of Lakehead Elementary Teachers of Ontario. “We are hopeful we will hear something for the week following June 2. But it wasn’t that much of a surprise that he didn’t have anything to say.”
“You can get a sense of our frustration. It is such an integral part of the reopening plan. For the premier and the education minister to not give us any kind of roadmap is quite frustrating.”
On Thursday, the provincial government outlined its three-stage roadmap for reopening the economy, with the first stage expected to begin on June 14.
However, the plan did not include any mention of reopening schools for the remaining weeks in June. When asked why there was no inclusion of schools, Premier Doug Ford said there is a lack of consensus among public health officials on the provincial science table and teachers have threatened to invoke an injunction.
There are no injunctions waiting if schools were to reopen and Richard Seeley, president of the Ontario Secondary Teachers Federation District 6A, said teachers have no say on the province’s decision to open schools.
“The minister has the complete power to open schools,” he said. “They haven’t talked to us at all during the pandemic. I think he’s trying to make teachers into a scapegoat to say it’s our fault when really we are in favour of getting schools open as long as they are open safely.”
Seeley added that teachers, as well as students and parents, would at the very least like to see a plan for reopening schools and the metrics the province would use to determine if it is safe to do so.
“We think they laid out a fairly good plan for the province, it seems like the science is finally behind it, there are clear thresholds and it made sense, but where do the schools fit into that?” he said.
“They didn’t seem to say anything about that and that was disappointing because it’s left teachers, parents, and students in the dark. It would be nice to know what they are planning and we just have no idea at all.”
Dr. Janet DeMille, medical officer of health with the Thunder Bay District Health Unit, has said numerous times that she would like to see students return to the classroom.
Students in Thunder Bay have been learning from home since early March when COVID-19 cases in the district were surging.
“Given the numbers in our region and the comments of Dr. DeMille I have faith in her assessment of the situation,” Judge said.
“I believe schools are safe. I believe protocols that were put in place in the fall and winter were really effective until Thunder Bay’s numbers started to get really high. But we saw there wasn’t any school transmission.”
Both Seeley and Judge said more work still needs to be done to ensure schools are completely safe, mainly more funding for upgraded ventilation systems.
“The amount of money they’ve put forward for ventilation is not adequate to do the things it needs to do,” Seeley said.
Despite the lack of a plan, Judge said he is hopeful that students in the Thunder Bay District will be returning to the classroom in June.
“I believe that the pressure families and students and educators and directors and trustees are all pushing for are going to get us back into the classroom in June,” he said. “There is a real need for a return to normalcy.”
Though Seeley is a little unsure if students will actually be returning before the end of the academic year.
“It didn’t give me any more or less confidence,” he said. “The fact that there is no plan and contradictory messages coming out about whether they are going to open or if they are not going to open. It’s anybody’s guess whether we are going to go back to school this year or not.”
