Monthly Archives: March 2020

Heroes in Ottawa

March 26, 2020

The only constant these days is change. Every day, we learn new information and try to process what it means and how it impacts us, our families, our communities, our country.

Amidst this constant change, heroes are emerging every day too – a new breed of heroes as this global pandemic crystallizes what really matters and redefines the word heroic for all of us.

In the Ottawa Sun on March 22, 2020, an article entitled, “Everywhere you look in Ottawa, there are COVID-19 heroes”,  provides a long list of heroes who have emerged in Ottawa in the last couple of weeks:

  • Medical Officer of Health Dr. Vera Etches. She has been offering information, keeping a calm head and helping set good policy for the city. She’s Ottawa’s face in the battle against novel coronavirus and a model of consistent good sense;

OTTAWA – March 13, 2020 – Dr. Vera Etches, Medical Officer of Health, Ottawa Public Health provides an update on the City’s plans in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. ERROL MCGIHON, Postmedia

  • The retail, food and drugstore workers and cashiers who keep showing up to ensure we all get the necessaries at a time when many commercial enterprises have either shut or been forced to. Thank these folks when you see them;
  • The employees and owners of the takeout joints still running, and the delivery people who are getting their wares to the public;
  • The long-haul truckers and other drivers who connect us with the resources we need across the country, and the corner-store and gas station employees who keep our vehicles running;
  • The local innovators finding ways to save lives. There’s Paul Lem, founder of Spartan Bioscience, who is working with his team to develop a hand-held product to quickly identify the COVID-19 virus. There’s Dr. Alain Gauthier of Perth, who has been testing a way to double or quadruple the capacity of ventilators. There’s Dairy Distillery, which has set aside its world-famous Vodkow to make hand sanitizer, which, you may have noticed, is in short supply these days.
  • The entertainers, like Jim Cuddy, who are streaming live, free concerts to cheer us up (thanks to a partnership between the National Arts Centre and Facebook Canada); the balcony singers; the neighbourhood groups who are encouraging kids to draw art and post it in living room windows; the communities who have suggested people turn on their Christmas lights at night. Great ideas.
  • The landlords who are extending rent deadlines for tenants; the internet providers who are expanding access; and the businesses who are extending credit to cash-strapped customers.
  • The saints in Ottawa who continue to help the homeless when they could just stay home themselves;
  • The many, many extraordinary community volunteers. For instance, Carleton student Harar Hall started a Facebook page, Covid-19 Community Care Ottawa, which has linked up more than 5,000 folks who either need assistance or can offer it.

The Fix Our Schools campaign has always appreciated the education workers who often go unrecognized in delivering quality education to our children such as caretakers, office staff, education assistants, and lunchroom supervisors. And we certainly have always appreciated teachers, administrators, trustees and school boards too for all they do to deliver quality education to our children.

 

In today’s context, as Ottawa and the rest of the country work to determine what publicly funded education will look like for Canadian students in the coming weeks and months, Fix Our Schools would like to thank all of these folks too. We suspect that they will be cited as heroes too as this pandemic continues to unfold.

A New Breed of Heroes

March 24, 2020

Thank you. Two small but incredibly important words.

In the March 23, 2020 edition of the Toronto Star, an editorial entitled “A new breed of heroes” outlines many people filling a wide variety of often unhailed occupations to whom we ought to say thank-you in the coming days, weeks and months.

  • Warehouse workers
  • Delivery Drivers and Truck Drivers
  • Cashiers and People Stocking Shelves
  • Cleaners
  • Farmers

Premier Doug Ford is quoted as saying, “I want to take a moment to recognize and thank the incredible employees throughout the supply chains that we’re counting on right now. From the farmer producing food to the trucker delivering supplies to your local store to people stocking the shelves and especially those working at the cash registers. These people are working hard and doing their part for Ontario. Please thank them every chance you get.”

We couldn’t agree more at Fix Our Schools!  And, of course, we owe a huge thank you to the nurses, doctors, and staff in hospitals, long-term care facilities, retirement homes, and shelters.

The Fix Our Schools campaign has always appreciated the education workers who often go unrecognized in delivering quality education to our children:

  • Caretakers
  • Office Staff
  • Education Assistants
  • Lunchroom Supervisors
  • Project/construction teams who conduct the repairs on our children’s schools

So at this time, we want to thank all of these critical people again! While many of these people are currently unable to work in schools, caretakers are conducting special cleaning of our children’s schools and many repair/construction projects continue to move ahead.  Thank you to everyone.

 

A new breed of heroes indeed.

 

Lessons in the Importance of Schoolyards

March 19, 2020

As social distancing continues and new norms are found, schoolyards continue to be busy with families and siblings out on their bikes and scooters, playing ball and running around. We wonder what children would love to see in their schoolyards?

Given that your children likely have some free time on their hands, we encourage you to take the opportunity to ask your children to draw or sculpt or collage their ideal schoolyard! We found some interesting ideas around the globe to get their creative juices flowing!

In Copenhagen, a playground was designed to teach children about road safety and looks pretty AWESOME!

This playground in West London was designed to heighten the many benefits of outdoor play on children’s development and to incorporate many natural materials.

Let us know what your children come up with as they imagine their ideal schoolyard.

Schoolyards are Key in Today’s Environment of Social Distancing

March 17, 2020

Fix Our Schools has always believed that schoolyards are a key component of school infrastructure. In today’s environment of social distancing amidst a global push to flatten the curve on the spread of the coronavirus, schoolyards have emerged as an even more integral part of our public infrastructure, providing a place to play catch, kick a ball, ride bikes or shoot some hoops.

Fix Our Schools is curious to see and hear how your local schoolyard is being used in the current environment of social distancing. Please email us at info@fixourschools.ca with photos or stories. Thanks!

Are Your Children Able to Effectively Wash Their Hands at School?

March 12, 2020

According to the World Health Organization, washing your hands thoroughly using running water and soap, and then drying them thoroughly protects against infections and the spread of disease.

In a March 3, 2020 Globe and Mail article entitled, “Canadian health officials warn schools of potentially critical role in slowing coronavirus spread“, infectious disease specialists say that schools will become a focal point when the disease starts to spread more freely in Canada.

With these two thoughts in mind, we would expect soap to be readily and consistently available in all schools for students to use to effectively wash their hands. Yet, with provincial funding cuts to education, caretaking staff is frequently stretched to accomplish the many important roles they play in our children’s schools. Unfortunately, over the years, Fix Our Schools has heard from many parents with concerns over lack of soap in school washrooms.

Given the current environment, we urge you to check in with your children regularly to encourage them to wash their hands throughout the day and to ensure that soap and running water is readily available to them at school. If this is not the case, we encourage you to contact your child’s school to let the Principal know this is a health and safety priority for you and your family.

What is Needed to Ensure Safe Drinking Water in Ontario’s Schools?

March 10, 2020

Lead in drinking water has been in the headlines for many months now, starting in early November. More recently, a February 27, 2020 Global News report entitled, “One in four Ontario schools and daycares found lead in tap water” highlighted how lead in drinking water continues to be a healthy and safety concern.

When parents send their children to school or daycare, they presume that the drinking water available to them is safe and free from any lead. That is clearly not the case in many instances. So, what needs to happen to change this reality?

Here are a few ideas:

There is currently no provincial policy mandating school boards to report lead exceedances to parents and students. As one school principal said in the Global News report cited above, “a clear ministry policy would help guide schools in what they should be communicating to parents and students”. Fix Our Schools believes that transparency about the state of our children’s schools is extremely important. Therefore, we urge the provincial government to institute a clear communication policy on drinking water safety in schools and daycares. In the spirit of transparency, we’ve also been routinely calling on the provincial government to update and release its disrepair data for all of Ontario’s publicly funded schools. 

There is currently no provincial funding that is provided to school boards to specifically address lead in drinking water. Given that most school boards face many urgent repairs every day such as leaking roofs, unless funding is provided to address lead in drinking water, the solution in many instances where exceedances are found may just be to cap off drinking water sources and place “handwashing only” signs on sinks in classrooms. Therefore, if we want safe drinking water to be available in schools and daycares, then adequate provincial funding must be provided to fix the root causes of lead in drinking water.

 

There is currently no standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools that would outline the metrics that could be used to measure whether a school is, indeed, in an acceptable state for children to spend their days. While our provincial government has been diligent in collecting disrepair data in schools, this data does not reflect lead in drinking water, asbestos issues, rodents and vermin, classroom temperatures, or portables to name but a few other elements that contribute towards students’ learning environments.

These solutions focus on what Ontario’s provincial government could do to ensure safe drinking water in provincial schools and daycares. However, we would be remiss if we did not mention that our Federal government is responsible for ensuring safe drinking water for First Nations School Infrastructure. Fix Our Schools urges our Federal government to take this responsibility seriously and to co-develop a comprehensive plan with First Nations to ensure safe drinking water is available in all First Nations schools.

 

 

Students Shocked by High Levels of Lead

March 5, 2020

In a Toronto Star article published on February 28, 2020 ,Ursula Franklin Academy students Emma Stuart-Kiss and Jack Wilson state, “we were shocked. (We) are very concerned with the lead levels in our school and the lack of transparency surrounding them”.  After reading a series of November 2019 Toronto Star Articles about lead in drinking water, the two students began investigating further.

Stuart-Kiss, the editor of the school newspaper at Ursula Franklin Academy, recently wrote an opinion piece for the newspaper stating, “through the deflection of blame and failure to surpass the low bar of Ministry regulations, it becomes apparent that without action and outcry, nothing will change. Apparently, safety and accountability are too much to ask for.”

 

 

Over the past three years, dozens of schools and daycares have logged dramatic lead spikes above 1,000 parts per billion (ppb), when Health Canada’s guideline states a maximum level of 5 ppb. Experts suggest that levels at this extremely high level can immediately impact blood lead levels in a child and cause harm in cognitive development. Despite Health Canada adopting a 5 ppb threshold, Ontario continues to use a 10 ppb threshold for lead in water.

Elevated Lead in Water Taps at Schools and Daycares

March 3, 2020

According to a Star Investigation cited in the February 28, 2020 article entitled, “A third of daycares, schools show elevated lead in water taps“, 36% of schools and daycares that tested for lead in the last three years had at least one exceedance of Health Canada’s guideline of 5 parts per billion (ppb). More than half of public schools that tested in the last three years registered at least one exceedance and, apparently, dozens of exceedances have been recorded at private schools such as Upper Canada College. It appears that no Ontario child is immune to the risk that they may ingest lead, a neurotoxin linked to negatively impacting cognitive development, while at their place of learning.

 

The February 28, 2020 Toronto Star article followed up on initial reports back in November, 2019 examing how much lead is in our drinking water.

Despite lead in drinking water being a very  serious health concern, there is no provincial policy that mandates school boards and schools to report lead exceedances to parents and students. When the Toronto Star recently contacted the Ministry of the Environment, Minister Jeff Yurek declined an interview. However, a written statement from the Ministry was sent to the newspaper saying, “the Province has provided $1.4-billion in funding in the 2018-19 school year to renew Ontario schools and ensure that major repair and replacement work can be undertaken, which could include replacement of plumbing systems and fixtures.” 

Fix Our Schools would like to point out that when school boards are facing a total of $16.3-billion of disrepair in their schools (which does not even include addressing issues such as lead in water, asbestos, classroom temperatures), $1.4-billion of provincial funding in a year does not go very far. In fact, given that our provincial government has been allocating $1.4-billion/year in funding for school repairs and renewal since June 2016 and total disrepair has increased during that time rather than decreased, it is safe to presume that $1.4-billion is not nearly sufficient to even take care of the disrepair that is included in the $16.3-billion school repair backlog.

For the provincial government to suggest that school boards have the choice of using the $1.4-billion to address lead in water is disingenuous and serves only to lay blame at the feet of school boards, when school boards rely exclusively on the provincial government to provide adequate and stable funding. We look to our provincial government to take responsibility, given that they are the level of government with responsibility over both funding and policy around lead in our children’s drinking water at school. With great power comes great responsibility, as we first wrote in 2015.

Fix Our Schools had hoped we’d moved beyond the unproductive dialogue of our provincial government blaming school boards for issues with school conditions. However, given the Ministry’s latest written response to the Toronto Star, it appears we have not. We urge both Environment Minister Yurek and Education Minister Lecce to take lead in drinking water very seriously and to take the steps needed to ensure not only proper communication about this issue but also to ensure adequate funding to school boards and municipalites to properly address the large infrastructure requirements needed to deal with lead in drinking water once and for all.