Tag Archives: Ontario

What will Back to School Look Like in Ontario?

June 17, 2020

Since the COVID pandemic hit in mid-March, and Ontario schools shut down, we’ve all surely come to value publicly funded education and schools more than ever before. Not only the learning for students, but also the sense of community, purpose, and routine that it provides our young people. After hearing the Ford government’s approach to reopening child care centres in this province, we anxiously await news from Ontario’s Education Minister Lecce about what “back to school” will look like in September.

In the interim, we consider how other jurisdictions have been approaching school reopening – both near and far:

In the Netherlands, elementary opened on May 11 with almost full attendance and taking the approach of “half-groups”, where half of each class attends school on alternating days, and the youngest learners not social distancing. Of note is how the Netherlands prioritized young children getting back to school ahead of bars, cafes, and restaurants.

Closer to home, according to a Globe & Mail article on June 13, an expert group from Canada’s largest pediatric hospital, Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children, is advising Ontario’s Ministry of Education to let children play together again when school resumes in the fall.

“Strict physical distancing should not be emphasized to children in the school setting as it is not practical and could cause significant psychological harm. Close interaction, such as playing and socializing, is central to child development and should not be discouraged.” 

However, this same expert group is also recommending that some physical distancing principles remain:

  • Desks should be separated
  • Line-ups ought to be spaced out appropriately
  • Schools should not hold assemblies.

Furthermore, hand-washing, screening for symptoms of COVID-19, as well as contact tracing to be able to isolate infected children and staff will be critical to success. 

More than 6,500 Canadians under the age of 19 have tested positive for the virus, 95 have been admitted to hospital, 18 of those people requiring treatment in an intensive-care unit. Notably, nobody under the age of 19 is known to have died of COVID-19 in Canada. Therefore, while we must not underestimate COVID-19, doctors are making the case that it is time to figure out how to live alongside the virus and to balance risk with the impact on children.

A June 16, 2020 Globe & Mail article took a closer look at Quebec, the first province in Canada to reopen schools, when primary students outside of Greater Montreal returned to classes on May 11. These schools enforced two-metre physical distancing, limited class sizes to 15 students, and created classroom bubbles that kept students from mixing. Out of more than 100,000 students and staff who returned to school, a total of 53 students and teachers were diagnosed with COVID-19 after the reopening. No serious illness was reported.

For the fall, Quebec plans to make school attendance compulsory except in cases of special health circumstances and to fully open primary and secondary schools. The Education Minister also announced that they will prepare a Plan B for online learning for children who end up in isolation due to outbreaks.

In the same Globe & Mail article, Alberta was another province cited. Alberta’s Ministry of Education announced a reopening plan the week of June 8 that provided three scenarios. While the provincial government said that a final decision would be made August 1st, parents and students were told to plan for an almost normal return to school in September.

Fix Our Schools is anxiously awaiting for Ontario’s Ministry of Education to announce its plans for schools in September. In the interim, we have provided input to our provincial government, urging the Province to prioritize a safe, effective return to school in September by:

  • Providing the required funding for school boards to safely re-open in September
  • Working with local school boards and local public health officials to provide weekly updates to the public on the school re-opening/planning process
  • Working with all key stakeholders, including local school boards, public health officials, teachers, education workers, principals, parents, and students to leverage all insights, experience, skills, and knowledge

The 2-million children in Ontario who attend publicly funded schools, and their families, deserve to have education and schools be prioritized by the Ford government. And, quite frankly, our economy demands it! Minister Lecce… over to you!

Fix Our Schools Submission to the Ministry of Education

June 14, 2020

On June 11, 2020, Fix Our Schools sent the following to the Ministry of Education, in response to their request for public input to Ontario’s plan to reopen schools.

Fix Our Schools is pleased to provide the following input to the Ministry of Education, and respectfully asks that the provincial government:

1.Prioritize publicly funded education and a safe, effective re-opening of schools in September as an integral component of re-opening our economy

Despite the fact that restarting schools is an essential driver for Ontario’s economy, the general public is hearing very little about what the provincial government and school boards are doing towards planning for September. At the same time, we are hearing quite a lot about golf courses, restaurants, hair salons, and other businesses. Students, families, communities, and our economy would all greatly benefit from a clear prioritization of publicly funded education and schools by your government.

In fact, in the June 5 edition of a Public Health Ontario document providing a collation of COVID-19 resources (https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/ncov-daily-lit.pdf?la=en), we were disappointed to see that schools were not even allocated their own line item. Furthermore, almost all the resources cited under the heading “Schools, Childcare & Businesses” were pertaining to businesses – not schools or childcares. 

2. Commit to providing the necessary funding for school boards to be able to reasonably plan and implement a safe, effective re-opening of schools in September.

Local school boards, with guidance from local public health officials, will ultimately be charged with re-opening Ontario’s schools for September. They need to start planning as soon as possible, and they need the certainty of adequate provincial funding – something that has been lacking for decades.

However, the COVID-19 crisis has demonstrated that, with political will, previously unimaginable public resources can be found and allocated. Now is the time for this same level of political will to be applied to our publicly funded schools and education system. Ontario’s 2-million students need to know that the adults in charge are committed to their education, their mental health, and their development. Our economy also demands a prioritization of public education and schools.

In this time of uncertainty, flexibility of provincial funding is also key. As new information is integrated into plans for school re-openings, the province must be committed to providing the necessary resources, and respond quickly to funding needs in the education system as this situation unfolds.

3. Work with local school boards and public health officials to provide weekly updates to the public on the school re-opening planning/implementation process.

“Bonnie Henry believes that if you tell people what you are doing and why – if you provide transparent decision-making with real reasons behind it – people will follow. Of course, you have to make the right decisions, too.” (https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/06/05/i-felt-the-weight-of-the-world-says-bc-health-officer-bonnie-henry-but-she-got-everything-right.html)

Effective, timely communication is paramount. Transparent and regular communication to the public about plans and possible models for publicly funded education and schools in September must start as soon as possible, and ought to be weekly at a set time and day. This approach will convey that publicly funded education and schools are, in fact, the priority that they must be in order for our economy to re-open.

4.Develop a commonly understood definition of “safe, effective return to school”.

School boards, public health officials, parents, students, teachers, principals, and education workers are all key stakeholders in the re-opening of schools. These key stakeholders must engage in regular dialogue to develop a common, shared understanding of what constitutes a “safe, effective return to school”. This common understanding will help build public confidence in school safety.

Thanks for the opportunity to provide input to such a critical step in moving forward in Ontario.

School conditions impact resilience

May 29, 2019

In the May 25, 2019 essay in the Globe and Mail newspaper entitled, “Resilience: Our ability to bounce back depends more on what’s around us than what’s within us”, Michael Ungar explores how people’s environments contribute to their resilience – their ability to weather difficult life circumstances.

Ungar is the Canada Research Chair in Child, Family and Community Resilience, a professor of social work at Dalhousie University and a family therapist. He has studied resilience around the world and has found that “all the internal resources we can muster are seldom of much use without a nurturing environment”. He goes on to say that his research clearly demonstrates that “resilience depends more on what we receive than what we have within us”.

Throughout his Globe and Mail essay, which is adapted from his book entitled, Change Your World: The Science of Resilience and the True Path to Success”, Unger cites external resources and environmental factors such as the following as being truly critical to a person’s resilience:

  • family, friends, and colleagues who are supportive
  • a community with police, social workers, fire departments, ambulances and food banks
  • employment insurance and pension plans
  • a working (or learning) environment that is well staffed and provides good conditions in buildings that are well-maintained

He concludes his essay by stating simply that, “When it comes to maintaining well-being and finding success, environments matter. In fact, they may matter just as much, and likely much more, than individual thoughts, feelings or behaviours.”

As we read this essay in Saturday’s Globe, we thought about the 2-million Ontario children who spend their days in publicly funded schools. If we want these children to not only survive but thrive and develop resilience, then to us, it seems obvious that we must provide them with school buildings that are safe, healthy and well-maintained and that we must provide them with well-staffed and properly resourced classrooms.  What do you think?

Education activism is growing – get involved and ensure your voice is heard!

May 23, 2019

Our focus at Fix Our Schools continues to be on eliminating the $15.9-billion of disrepair in Ontario’s schools and seeing our provincial government enact a Standard of Good Repair for schools. However, there are many other issues facing our publicly funded education system and many parents and students across the province are emerging as voices for those concerns as well. 

Fix Our Schools encourages you to get involved with the following province-wide education advocacy efforts if you have concerns outside of school infrastructure. And please let us know of others out there too! We know there are many groups forming more locally across the province as well, which is such an important form of activism such as the West End Parents for Public Education in Toronto. 

We believe wholeheartedly in a strong publicly funded education system and we are so happy to see so much grassroots advocacy emerging and flourishing in the education sector. 

  1. Ontario Families for Public Education

This Facebook group was created by Ontario parents as a space for all Ontario parents to get plain language updates on how provincial funding and policies may affect our childrens’ educations.

2. Students Say No

This movement is being led by Ontario students focused on ensuring a strong, publicly funded education system in this province. They are active on Instagram and Facebook.

3. Parents4Education

This website was created by a group of parents who are concerned that Ministry of Education’s proposed changes to education will have a significant negative impact on student achievement and well-being. It provides a collection of content, thoughts, concerns, articles and resources to help you form your own opinion and provide feedback to the provincial government. One of the concerns highlighted by this group if mandatory e-learning in high schools.

 

Behind every school fun fair, magazine drive and dance-a-thon…

April 26, 2018

Behind every school fun fair, magazine drive and dance-a-thon is a group of parents who want the best education possible for their children and who are willing to put in both volunteer time and/or money to fill a gap that provincial education funding has left in their children’s school experience. In Kerry Clare’s Today’s Parent article entitled, “Another school fundraiser? Rethinking funding for education”  Clare mentions that at her daughter’s publicly funded school, a litany of fundraising initiatives have been introduced over the years to each fund specific programs.

“Scrap the magazine sale and say goodbye to new classroom literacy materials. The dance-a-thon came about one year when the board had no funding for new computers. This year, an enterprising parent organized the sale of school-branded hoodies to finance the replacement of decades-old gym mats. These campaigns—and the parent volunteers who run them—are filling a massive gap in education funding, and teachers and students have come to count on them.”

Many reports about school fundraising over the years have examined the inequity in school fundraising, depending on the socioeconomic demographics of a given school community. For instance, the March 1, 2018 article in the Toronto Star, entitled, “Fundraising widens gap between have and have-not students, report finds”, citing the latest research by People for Education. However, these reports seldom question why school fundraising, beyond the odd community-building event, exists in the first place.

As one parent, who chairs the fundraising committee at her school, noted in her letter to the editor in response to the Toronto Star article, “I believe the media does a disservice to the children of Ontario by repeatedly writing stories about “have” and “have-not” schools. The provincial government and the media have divided parents with these kinds of stories, when the real reason for inequity in Ontario’s schools is completely inadequate education funding from the Province for all schools.“

Sadly, our provincial government, which has held all the power over education and school funding for over two decades has underfunded education and schools for over two decades. Until we address this root cause and, as citizens, demand that our provincial government rethink how they fund schools and education in Ontario, there will continue to be year over year growth in school fundraising.

Cookie dough anyone?

More than 640 Ontario schools and daycares fail lead tests

October 9, 2017

After the Toronto Star newspaper spent a year trying to obtain data from Ontario’s Environment Ministry on which schools failed lead tests, the Province finally decided to publish information online this past Friday, October 6, 2017. Coincidentally, this same day, the Toronto Star published an article entitled, “More than 640 Ontario schools and daycares failed lead tests in the past two years”. Continue reading →

Imagine if all children attended a school like…

May 11, 2016

2016_April 18_Photo of Frank Hayden new school in BurlingtonDr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School in Burlington, Ontario?

Built as part of a community complex, this high school opened its doors in September 2013. As one student wrote in a Burlington Gazette article, “I’m so jealous. I fell asleep in the middle of my math exam in June of 2012. Why did I fall asleep? No air conditioning. Well at Dr. Frank J. Hayden High School they won’t have that problem. They have air-conditioning and I’ve heard it’s absolutely gorgeous. The whole school is new; and new is spectacular!”

Indeed, new is spectacular! While not all Ontario students can attend brand new schools, all Ontario students ought to attend school buildings that are safe, well-maintained and that provide an environment conducive to learning. Let your MPP know that you expect their government to provide sufficient funding to all Ontario’s school boards to address the $15-billion of disrepair that currently exists in Ontario’s publicly funded schools.

Auditor-General’s 2015 Report: How disrepair in Ontario’s public schools is assessed

December 30, 2015

We’ve copied and pasted the following section on how disrepair in Ontario’s public schools is assessed from page 13 of Chapter 3 of the  2015 Auditor-General’s report, since there is a lot of interesting information for people concerned with the state of disrepair in Ontario’s public schools:

“In 2011, to quantify the current backlog of renewal needs for all Ontario schools, the Ministry of Education hired a company specializing in asset management to conduct condition assessments on all schools five years and older. The assessments are being done over a five year period covering about 20% of the schools per year. The assessors visit each school and conduct a non-invasive inspection of all major building components and systems (for example, basement, foundation, and HVAC systems).

School portables, third-party leased facilities, equipment and furnishings, maintenance shops and additional administrative buildings are not assessed as part of this exercise. Currently, with 80% of the schools assessed, the Ministry is reporting a total renewal need of $14 billion, $1.7 billion deemed as critical and urgent (i.e., renewal work that should not be postponed due to risk of imminent failure).

An investment of about $1.4 billion per year based on an industry average of 2.5% of the $55 billion replacement value is estimated to be required to maintain the schools in a state of good repair. But actual annual funding in the last five years had been $150 million a year, increasing to $250 million in 2014/15 and $500 million in 2015/16.

The Ministry allocates this funding to school boards based on a percentage calculated by dividing the school boards’ individual needs by the total renewal need of $14 billion. Distributing the funding in proportion to individual school boards’ critical needs should be considered to at least ensure that the critical needs are met.

The assessments made during the first year of the condition assessment exercise are now five years old. Therefore, any further deterioration or repairs that might have been undertaken on those schools over this period have not been captured.”

How to successfully meet Ontario’s infrastructure needs?

July 20, 2015

Barry Steinberg is CEO of the Consulting Engineers of Ontario, which represents the interests of 200 engineering firms. He offered the following insight about how Ontario can successfully meet our future infrastructure needs in a recent Globe & Mail editorial:

“Successfully meeting Ontario’s infrastructure needs will only happen as a result of sound planning supported by consistent investment from dedicated revenue streams, not on a project-to-project basis.”