We continue to hear from more people across Ontario about the importance of safe, healthy, well-maintained schools that provide environments conducive to learning.
One Ontario citizen who is both a parent and an education worker sent us a copy of a letter she wrote to Premier Wynne during the heat wave in September. Many important points are raised in this letter, including the importance of ensuring that new school buildings are safe, healthy buildings that provide environments conducive to learning.
I work in a kindergarten class, which is a new build with many new south-facing windows. The picture here was taken on day 3 of the September 2017 heat wave when I had finally had enough of three to five year olds suffering (the temperature was the lowest on this day).
We actually had to relocate the students to a cooler class (not air-conditioned) at lunch where 55 children had to eat lunch in one classroom just to be comfortable enough to eat their lunch. One child became so overheated that she had a terrible nosebleed that was difficult to stop because her temperature was so high.
Given the recent climate changes over the past few years that regularly sees parents dropping off ineffective fans for their children’s comfort, I would like you to consider increasing funding to deal specifically with the climate control in schools without air conditioning.
No person can possibly learn anything or function at a reasonable level at 34 degrees celsius. We simply must ensure that adequate funding exists for each classroom to maintain temperatures conducive to learning.
Thank you very much for your consideration of this request.