Tag Archives: Ventilation

More Proof that School Conditions Matter; and Solutions to Improve Ontario’s School Conditions

December 7, 2021

More Proof that School Conditions Matter

Fix Our Schools began is a parent-led, non-partisan, Ontario-wide campaign focused on ensuring all publicly funded school buildings, portables and schoolyards are safe, healthy, well-maintained, and provide environments conducive to learning and working. Since we launched in 2014, we have always believed that school conditions matter. Taking care of the capital assets we call public schools makes good financial sense, and has also been shown to improve the health, learning, attendance and performance of the learners and workers who spend their days at school. 

A September, 2021 study led by Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health found that, “the air quality within an office can have significant impacts on employees’ cognitive function, including response times and ability to focus, and it may also affect their productivity“. In fact, cognitive function test were 61%-101% higher in buildings with higher ventilation than in conventional buildings. Clearly, indoor air quality in schools could have a significant impact on students’ cognitive function, and their ability to learn. Not much of a stretch to extrapolate this conclusion! 

The COVID-19 pandemic has clearly demonstrated the urgency of ensuring good ventilation and indoor air quality. Joseph Allen, Associate Professor of Exposure Assessment Science and senior author on the Harvard study mentioned above, noted that “the value proposition of these strategies extends to cognitive function and productivity of workers, making healthy buildings foundational to public health and business strategy moving forward.”

How Do We Ensure Excellent School Conditions in Ontario? 

If we accept that school conditions matter, then we must take the following steps:

1. Develop and implement a Standard of Good Repair for Ontario’s publicly funded schools, including transparent metrics for school buildings, portables and schoolyards. These standards and associated metrics would include and address:

    • The $16.8-billion of disrepair in school buildings
    • A program to assess current repair backlogs in portables and schoolyards
    • Air quality and ventilation
    • Classroom temperatures
    • Accessibility
    • Environmental efficiency & durability
    • Job site safety for school construction projects and maintenance work
    • Drinking water
    • Asbestos
    • Cleanliness
    • Classroom space
    • Vermin, mold
    • Fire and electrical code

2. Provide Ontario’s publicly funded schools with adequate, stable, equitable funding that ensures these standards are met; and publicly demonstrate positive outcomes by collecting and releasing associated metrics at regular intervals.

Fix Our Schools provided these recommendations to the Ministry of Education as part of its 2022-23 Education Funding consultation process, highlighting that, at a minimum, an additional $1.6-B/year is required (on top of the current $1.4-B/year provincial funding for school repair and renewal) to start to turn the tide on the ever-growing backlog of disrepair in Ontario’s schools. This level of increased funding is a recommendation that we have been making to since 2017 and, with each year that successive governments have failed to heed this call to action, the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has grown.

In fact, the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has grown from $15.9-B in November, 2017 (the last time that full disrepair data was released by the provincial government) to $16.8-B. And, as we’ve noted previously, this $16.8-B number does not even begin to include many important aspects of school infrastructure.

Fix Our Schools has always been open to exploring all ideas for funding solutions that could result in safe, healthy, well-maintained schools. We would welcome further exploration of the following ideas as well:

  1. Separating the assets we happen to call “public schools ” today (but that could become community hubs serving seniors in two decades time) from the education that is delivered in these buildings could be a powerful shift that could unlock new revenue streams. Education is engrained in the Canadian constitution as a provincial responsibility so when we include school infrastructure as part of “education”, our provincial governments in Canada are then solely responsible for funding both public education and public school infrastructure (school buildings, portables and schoolyards). However, if we delineate school infrastructure from education, then municipal, provincial, and federal governments could (and should!) contribute to funding safe, healthy, well-maintained school infrastructure.  
  2. Similarly, if the capital assets we call schools were considered to be separate and distinct from the education delivered in schools, perhaps school infrastructure would be better managed by an entity with power over the funding and policies, and accountability over the outcomes. As economist Hugh Mackenzie has  noted, “The (Provincial) government is fully responsible for the level of funding provided but local school boards bear the consequences and are accountable for the results. Despite the government’s complete control over funding, there is no provincial accountability mechanism for the performance of and funding for the system as a whole.” As Fix Our Schools has noted time and again, Ontario’s school boards are at the mercy of the provincial funding model, and the provincial government of the day blames school boards for substandard school conditions, even though the provincial funding to maintain, repair and build schools has been chronically and grossly inadequate. This is the dynamic that has led to a large and growing repair backlog in Ontario’s public schools that now sits at a gob-smacking $16.8-billion, and therefore is a dynamic that must be examined and changed. School infrastructure could, perhaps, become the responsibility of the provincial government rather than the responsibility of school boards. Or, school boards could, perhaps, be given back the power of taxation. Or, perhaps if Municipalities and the Federal government were also involved in the funding of maintenance, repair and building of school infrastructure, there are other models to be considered.
  3. The Toronto District School Board and its subsidiary the Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC) have proposed selling off non-instructional sites to fix the TDSB’s crumbling schools, as outlined in the November 26 CBC article by Angelina King entitled, “The TDSB is ‘land rich and cash poor’ – could $1-B in real estate help fix crumbling schools?“. This is a proposed solution that would demand many changes to provincial policies and approaches to actually be realized, and one that would only assist the TDSB, which is one of 72 school boards in the province, all of which face large and growing repair backlogs. However, the concept proposed by the TDSB and TLC is an interesting one that warrants examination and discussion. In essence, it is a question of how society can best use and derive value from public buildings over time, and changing demographics.

As a parent-led campaign, we certainly do not have all the policy answers. However, we do know, unequivocally, that the current provincial funding model and approach to policies that inform school conditions is one that is broken. New solutions are needed now, and we need a provincial government that listens, works with stakeholders, and has a culture of learning.

School is in Session! Yet Queen’s Park is Not…

September 9, 2021

Premier Ford Prorogues Legislature Until October 4

In the midst of the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the return of almost 2-million Ontario children to schools that have been closed since April is pivotal for students, parents, teachers and education workers across the province. However, Premier Ford felt this was the right time to prorogue provincial legislature until October 4, when our MPPs were meant to be back at work on September 13.

According to the September 3 article in the Toronto Sun entitled, Ontario government prorogues legislature until after the federal election”, NDP and Green Leaders Andrea Horwath and Mike Schreiner both expressed that Ford’s move was irresponsible and an abdication of responsibility.

“It’s bad enough that Doug Ford has gone into hiding for over a month, now he is choosing to hide his entire government,” said Horwath.

Schreiner added, “When the times are tough and Ontarians need support, Doug Ford and his government run for the shadows.”

Mitigating COVID-19 Risks in Schools

Sabina Vohra-Miller, MSc. in Clinical Pharmacology, runs a non-partisan blog called Unambiguous Science, with the goal of “helping people navigate the current anti-science vortex by breaking data down into posts that are easy to understand”.  She released a helpful blog this past week entitled, “Safe Schools – Advocacy and Considerations” to assist parents in advocating for mitigation strategies and in navigating the complexity of return-to-school amidst the fourth wave of the COVID-19-pandemic. Vohra-Miller included the following two graphics to clarify how schools can be mitigating COVID-related risks, and to outline considerations for families as children head back to schools.

Ventilation has been a key concern for us at Fix Our Schools, and we will continue to cover this important topic in the coming weeks and months. At the moment, we believe that our provincial government must provide the required funding and resources to ensure school boards gather measurements on ventilation and indoor air quality in all classrooms to compare against a provincial standard. Without knowing the outcome of ventilation improvement efforts and having a standard that all Ontario schools must meet, we simply have no way of knowing whether the ventilation and indoor air quality in a given classroom is sufficient to reduce the spread of COVID.

Ontario’s University of Guelph has been incredibly transparent about how they are preparing for your safe return, stating that, “Physical Resources has assessed ventilation in all classrooms scheduled for use this fall. Before classes begin in September, all classrooms that will be in use will have ventilation measures in place that provide for the equivalent of six outside air changes per hour (ACH). Air movement and, in some cases, air purifiers will allow these spaces to reach this ventilation target – a measure equal to the standard in place for medical examination rooms.” As of August 12, 2021, anyone can view detailed ventilation measures in all University of Guelph classrooms to track progress towards meeting the 6 ACH standard.

The example of the University of Guelph, which has many other funding options at its disposal beyond the provincial government, provides a stark contrast to Ontario’s publicly funded schools, which rely exclusively upon provincial funding. The University of Guelph has set a standard of 6 air changes per hour (ACH), the same standard in place for medical examination rooms, and then has been taking the measurements in classrooms to ensure these standards are met.  When will our provincial government provide the standards, funding and resources for public schools in this province to ensure that indoor air quality and ventilation is at an appropriate level in all Ontario’s classrooms?  

A Long History of Provincial Underfunding for School Infrastructure 

Chronic and gross underfunding from Ontario’s provincial government for school infrastructure has led to a $16.8-B repair backlog in Ontario’s schools. This massive repair backlog does not even include issues such as classroom temperatures and humidity, accessibility issues with the vast majority of Ontario’s schools, technology gaps, or the state of portables, the conditions of which are never assessed.

When Fix Our Schools began in 2014, provincial funding for school renewal and repair was only $150-M/year for all Ontario school boards – an amount that was ONE-TENTH what industry standards suggest the bare minimum amount of funding ought to have been to keep Ontario’s schools in decent shape. To the credit of the previous provincial government, they did increase this annual amount significantly back in 2016 to $1.4-B/year – the amount industry standards recommended as the bare minimum. However, as Fix Our Schools has repeatedly pointed out – this annual funding level is still insufficient to make up for the 20+ years when funding was grossly inadequate and during which time a $15-B repair backlog accumulated in Ontario’s schools. So, unsurprisingly, despite the ongoing $1.4-B/year of provincial funding for school renewal and repairs, the repair backlog for Ontario’s schools has continued to grow year over year to a gob-smacking $16.8-B.

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly laid bare the importance of school buildings for the health and well-being of students, teachers and education workers. As we head into another school year amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, City TV Toronto covered the issue of disrepair in schools on September 7, 2021. They revealed that the schools in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) combined have close to $5-B of disrepair. Fix Our Schools was interviewed for this segment, and emphasized how the current provincial funding, while a huge sum of money, is simply insufficient if we actually want to eliminate the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools and ensure our publicly funded schools are safe, healthy and well-maintained.

CBC Toronto has also started covering this important issue, kicking off a series about the state of TDSB schools on September 9, 2021. John Riete, Angelina King, and Katie Swyers provided a comprehensive and concise look at why school conditions matter and the impact of poor school conditions on learning and health. Fix Our Schools provided an overview of the history that has led to a public education system where Ontario schools face a $16.8-B backlog of disrepair.

Krista Wylie, the co-founder of the organization Fix Our Schools, said the solution has to come from Queen’s Park. Since 2016, the province (under the Wynne and Ford governments) has spent some $1.4 billion per year on school repairs across the province, but that funding is split across some 5,000 schools. That price tag may look big, but Wylie said in her view it’s the “absolute minimum, and noted that even with this often cited “historic level of provincial funding”, the repair backlog in Ontario’s schools has continued to grow every year, proving that provincial funding is simply insufficient.

Back to School is Upon Us – As is the Federal Election

September 2, 2021

Back to School

As Ontario’s students get ready to return to classes for the the first time since April, there is much uncertainty and trepidation. In the August 28, 2021 Globe & Mail opinion piece entitled, “How to fix Canada’s education catastrophe in five steps“, Irvin Studin described the chaos  – “for the majority of Canada’s nearly five million children still in the country’s school systems, learning loss and destabilization during the pandemic have been severe. This is particularly true in Ontario, which includes 40 per cent of the national student body and which has seen some of the longest school closings in North America.” And with this in mind, Studin posits that, “schools must be kept open at all costs” and that, “we must double down on quality because “average” or “normal” – or, yes, “safe” – is plainly not good enough.”

It is now September and many parents, teachers, and education workers are echoing the Toronto Star Editorial Board’s sentiments in their August 24, 2021 editorial entitled, “Ford is sleepwalking Ontario into a rising COVID wave again” and wondering, “where is Premier Doug Ford?” and “why is it that Doug Ford, who has access to the most information about the trouble coming our way and holds the most tools to do something about it, is always the last one to see the light?” The Toronto Star Editorial Board argues that Ontario must follow B.C and Quebec’s lead in implementing a vaccine certificate system (which Premier Ford reluctantly announced this week), noting that the Ford government has consistently failed to be proactive, instead choosing to wait until things got really bad before scrambling to enact policies and measures that then proved too little and too late. They also go so far as to state that Premier Ford’s lack of proactive policy amidst this fourth wave of the COVID pandemic is “a total abdication of political leadership”.

In this absence of political leadership, the Toronto Star released an article on August 30, 2021 entitled, “With September approaching, how safe is your child’s elementary school?” The article notes that “experts say community vaccination rates are one of the most important indicators of COVID transmission risk among unvaccinated kids.” and goes on to release vaccination rates by postal code for Toronto to help families better understand the risks involved as their unvaccinated elementary school children head back to school. Partnering with Tai Huynh, founding editor-in-chief of The Local, the same Star article provides a chart in which the risk of infection for younger students can be compared among Toronto’s 666 elementary and middle schools in the TDSB, TCDSB and the French public and Catholic boards. This chart considers the community case count over the course of the pandemic as well as vaccination rates in order to arrive at a risk rating for each school.

Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, a non-profit that supports public education, is cited in the same Toronto Star article as stating that, “the best way to protect kids this fall is to require COVID shots for both staff and students 12 and up.” Kidder also noted that children already need to get vaccines for diseases such as measles and polio to attend school.

School Ventilation

Another element of ensuring COVID-spread and outbreaks are limited in schools is good ventilation in schools and classrooms. As of September, our provincial government has mandated that all kindergarten classes and all learning spaces without mechanical ventilation are required to have at least one air purifying (HEPA) filter. Also as per provincial mandate, schools with mechanical ventilation are expected to increase outdoor air exchanges and improve the grade of filter used. Of note is that some school boards, such as the Toronto District School Board, are going above and beyond this provincial directive to ensure all classrooms have portable air purifiers with HEPA filters. Of equal note is that non-mechanically ventilated classrooms may need more than one HEPA filter to achieve the ventilation required to reduce the spread of COVID.

However, our provincial government has fallen short relative to school ventilation. The provincial government has not provided adequate funding to ensure all classrooms ultimately benefit from mechanical ventilation, which would provide benefits well beyond the COVID-pandemic. We know that only 70% of classrooms in Ontario have mechanical ventilation. As well, our provincial government has failed to provide the funding or direction to school boards to institute standards and metrics for indoor air quality and ventilation. At the end of the day, what really matters is the outcome of the ventilation investments so without regular measurements and a standard to meet, we will never know if our children’s classrooms have good ventilation.

In New York City, “school ventilation action teams” have been created to assess the air quality in all schools ahead of September. “Until you actually measure the air in there and what (air) exchange is happening, it’s just a bit of ventilation theatre,” said Seth Bernstein, a secondary school teacher and parent to an elementary school-aged kid.

Federal Election

Since Fix Our Schools’ inception in 2014, we have always taken the opportunity with each federal election to highlight:

  1. The federal government is responsible for First Nations education and schools and there is notable disrepair, lack of clean water and sanitation in many schools on First Nations reserves. There is also an absence of schools within a reasonable distance for many First Nations students. Since the last federal election in 2019, there has been no notable improvements in school conditions, lack of clean water and sanitation in schools on First Nations reserves, nor any move forward in accessibility of quality education to all Indigenous children. Therefore, we once again urge all federal parties and candidates to prioritize the schools and education of all Indigenous children.
  2. How federal funding could benefit school building infrastructure across the country even though historically, our federal government has stayed entirely out of schools and education, which are technically a provincial jurisdiction. However, our argument has always been that if we delineate the school buildings from education, surely federal funding could go towards the renewal, repair and building of critical school infrastructure. Interestingly, the COVID-19 pandemic led the federal government to allocate hundreds of millions of dollars to provinces to use to make improvements to school buildings that would help reduce the spread of COVID-19. We’ve seen the lion’s share of this federal funding go towards important improvements to ventilation, which will serve to benefit children, teachers, and education workers not only during the pandemic but also for the long-term. With this as a precedent, Fix Our Schools once again urges all federal parties and candidates to prioritize the allocation of annual funding to Canada’s school building infrastructure in order to address the unacceptable levels of school disrepair across the country.

In the coming weeks, as you have opportunities to ask questions of federal parties and candidates, here are some questions and conversation starters you may consider.

 

 

Ventilation in Ontario’s Schools: Update

August 17, 2021

Ventilation is a key aspect of keeping people safe during the COVID-pandemic. With schools opening soon for in-person learning for the first time in many months, amidst what has been confirmed to be the fourth wave of the COVID-pandemic in Ontario, ventilation in schools is understandably a hot topic.

The August 13, 2021 Toronto Star article by Sarah Mojtehedzadeh and May Warren entitled, “Many major school ventilation upgrades won’t be ready by September. Here’s what you need to know about the precautions in place” does an outstanding job of providing details on what to expect at schools in various school boards across the province relative to ventilation this September. The Toronto Star team contacted all 72 Ontario school boards to ask for details on ventilation improvements and upgrades in their schools, and heard back from 30 school boards.

We applaud the transparency and candour of these 30 school boards who responded to the Toronto Star. Fix Our Schools has also been so appreciative of school boards such as the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board (HWDSB)  and the Toronto District School Board (TDSB), that are being transparent on a school-by-school basis about ventilation, and also endeavouring to educate us about the complexities of ventilation.

If you do not see your local school board’s ventilation details in the Toronto Star report, nor are you able to find ventilation details on your school board’s website, please contact your local Trustee and Chair to let them know you expect transparency on the safety of classrooms, and that you want to know details on ventilation improvements, upgrades, and, ideally, data on indoor air quality in your local classrooms and schools. Students, teachers, and education workers deserve transparency as they head back to classrooms. In elementary classrooms, where most students are too young to get vaccinated, ventilation is even more critically relied upon as a measure to reduce the spread of COVID in classrooms.

The August 13th Toronto Star article also shares that, while some ventilation upgrades will not be ready in time for the first day back at school, Ontario’s 72 school boards will be installing air-purifying HEPA filters in all classrooms without mechanical ventilation, as per this Ministry of Education memo 2021:B14 on school ventilation, dated August 4.

Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto, calls this an “enormously important” step. Engineer David Elfstrom cautions that careful monitoring and oversight is required to ensure the HEPA filters are used correctly. He notes that if these air-purifying units are, for instance, run on too low a speed, the space “won’t be much better than what they had to start with.” Elfstrom also suggests that many non-mechanically ventilated classrooms may require more than one air purifier to be effective.

Therefore,  even though Mr. Elfstrom sees many positive aspects to the provincial government’s back-to-school plan, he suggests that it would be much stronger if the Province also included specific target metrics.

Elfstrom’s main concern is for the schools that do not yet have mechanical ventilation. “I am worried about the classrooms that have either zero mechanical ventilation or only just an exhaust fan type of ventilation. Those are the ones that the ministry is asking to put a HEPA filter in, but not specifying what the target should be,” said Elfstrom. He goes on to say that without clear provincial targets in place for the indoor air quality to be achieved through having these HEPA filters in classrooms, it is highly possible that classrooms without mechanical ventilation and only one HEPA filter may not achieve the same minimum level of ventilation of classrooms with mechanical ventilation, resulting in ventilation inequity across classrooms.

“If you set a target, then you actually have something to work towards. And so far, nothing from even the latest memo from the Ministry of Education has any targets,” Elfstrom notes. Jessica Lyons of the Ontario Parent Action Network is also cited in the August 13 Toronto Star article. Lyons expresses concern about the lack of any transparency on the metrics that are trying to be achieved with ventilation improvements, and wonders who will monitor the outcome of the myriad of ventilation upgrades and improvements.

David Elfstrom suggests that the use of carbon dioxide monitors in classrooms could serve as a proxy for air quality, even though CO2 levels don’t correlate with COVID-19 transmission risks. However, the Ministry of Education is leaving it to school boards to decide whether to use CO2 monitors. Knowing that $600-million is being invested in school ventilation improvements and upgrades, Fix Our Schools cannot fathom why our provincial government is not willing to actually measure indoor air quality and ensure that the money invested has yielded desired outcomes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly brought an urgency to the importance of proper ventilation and good indoor air quality that Fix Our Schools has not seen since we began our advocacy in 2014. Clearly, in the coming months, the obvious and urgent main goal of ventilation improvements is to lower COVID transmission in classrooms. However, going forward, improved ventilation and better indoor air quality in classrooms and schools can lead to better learning environments with better academic results, better attendance, and better health for students, teachers and education workers. With so many reasons to get this right, Fix Our Schools looks to Premier Ford to fund metrics, targets and systems immediately so that good ventilation and indoor air quality are forevermore embedded as key aspects of any public learning environment. 

Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering at the University of Toronto, sums the situation up nicely, stating that “ultimately, greater focus on ventilation issues is crucial — and should have started earlier”. Katharine Smart, president-elect of the Canadian Medical Association also summed things up nicely, stating in her opinion piece in the Globe & Mail on August 16, 2021, “with the knowledge that the virus is airborne, why are we not addressing school ventilation urgently?”.

It’s Time to Remind Lecce and Ford that September is Approaching Fast

July 30, 2021

Time to Take Some Action

September is approaching fast. Premier Ford and Minister Lecce have yet to release a plan and associated funding for a safe and supportive return to school for Ontario’s 2-million students. Time is running out. Let’s remind our provincial government that we expect our children to be a priority and to have:

  • safe, healthy, well-maintained schools that provide environments conducive to learning
  • all the supports in place to recover, learn and thrive

https://twitter.com/parentaction4ed/status/1420135298298642437

Check out this action toolkit created by the Ontario Parent Action Network (OPAN) for easy-to-use resources developed by parents and education workers at a recent public Town Hall. Fix Our Schools is working with OPAN to prioritize Ontario’s children and ensure a safe return to school this fall. In this action toolkit, you will find: 

👉A FLYER to print out, and a PETITION

👉 A helpful outreach HOW-TO and tip sheet

👉Action listings to see if an outreach action is already being organized near you

👉Support for creating & registering an action! Invite others to join using our action form!

All of these great resources are ready to go whenever you are! Outreach can happen any day that works best for you – and no action is too small. If you are heading out to the baseball diamond or soccer pitch, that is a great opportunity to take copies of this flyer to hand out to other families. Or, if you are heading to the park or splash-pad or local market or to your workplace, these are also great opportunities to share this flyer. Consider printing some flyers and dropping them off to your neighbours. Remember to encourage others to contact Premier Ford, Minister Lecce and their local MPP to let them know their expectations. 

Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation…

September is approaching quickly and we know very little about the indoor air quality in our children’s classrooms.

Time is running out and we do need action as soon as possible.

Indoor air quality (IAQ) not only can prevent transmission of COVID-19 but also can impact people’s health, emotional well-being, learning and performance. So what is needed?

  • We need standards for IAQ and ventilation in Ontario’s schools and classrooms.
  • We need to measure IAQ and ventilation regularly against those standards.
  • We need transparency and clear, regular communication about these measurements and how they compare to those standards.
  • We need expertise from engineers and industrial/occupational hygienists
  • We need improvements to mechanical HVAC systems, windows, and portable fan/filtration systems

And to achieve this, we need provincial funding and leadership.

Ventilation is a key to safe, healthy schools and classrooms as we continue to face the COVID-19 challenge and as we move forward beyond the pandemic. To everyone working in the provincial government, and especially to Premier Ford and Minister Lecce:  Ontario’s children need your leadership and your commitment to providing adequate, stable funding for schools and education.

What’s the Plan Premier Ford and Minister Lecce?

July 22, 2021

What is the plan for September for Ontario’s 2-million elementary and high school students to safely resume in-person learning? Having experienced the longest interruption of face-to-face learning in Canada, Ontario’s children surely deserve to be prioritized by Premier Ford and Minister Lecce. As we’ve previously stated, we believe that the Ford government has:

and in so doing, our provincial government has ultimately failed Ontario’s students and their families and our economy. Fix Our Schools sincere hope is that we will see a change in the approach of the Ford government as we head into the 2021/22 school year.

We read with interest the Ontario Science Table’s recent science briefing entitled, “School Operation for the 2021- 2022 Academic Year in the Context of the COVID-19 Pandemic” that was released on July 19, 2021. This science briefing emphasized that education is “children’s essential work”, that schools are of critical importance to students’ learning and overall well-being, and that in-person schooling is optimal for the vast majority of students.

The focus of the Fix Our Schools campaign continues to be ensuring safe, healthy, well-maintained school buildings that provide environments conducive to learning and working for all Ontario students, teachers, and education workers. With this lens in mind, we were struck by the attention given in the science briefing to special considerations required for rural, remote, and Indigenous communities; to indoor air quality (IAQ), achieved through proper ventilation and filtration; and to hand hygiene:

Indigenous Communities 

The July 19th science briefing clearly acknowledged that, “for rural, remote, and Indigenous communities, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented additional distinctive and substantial challenges for education delivery which has expanded inequities”. Specific to school infrastructure, the science briefing highlighted the following points:

  1. Ensure clear accountability for education support whether through federal or provincial resources.
  2. Remote learning is less accessible, due to technological challenges, in these communities.
  3. Aging infrastructure, including older HVAC and supplemental ventilation/filtration systems in many remote First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities may impact the ability to properly ventilate schools and ensure adequate air quality, particularly during local outbreaks and in the colder months when opening windows is not an option.
  4. Schools in remote, rural, and First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities that do not meet the appropriate minimum ventilation guidelines from ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019, should be prioritized for upgrades.
  5. Overcrowded education infrastructure in some remote First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities could make preventative measures such as cohorting and physical distancing difficult and could result in the need to shift to remote learning in some instances, further contributing to high rates of disengagement. Appropriate resources should be provided to ensure adequate space is available to support consistent in-person learning in these communities, and to ensure equitable access to digital learning resources.

Fix Our Schools must highlight that Canada’s federal government is responsible for First Nations School Infrastructure, and that even prior to the challenges of COVID-19, overcrowding, disrepair, and, unbelievably, something as essential as safe drinking water have all been issues that schools for Ontario’s Indigenous communities. Furthermore, our federal government was very late to provide what appears to have been grossly inadequate funding last summer for First Nations schools to be able to ensure a safe and effective reopening of schools in September 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

With these realities as context, Prime Minister Trudeau, Carolyn Bennett, our federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, and Marc Miller, our federal Minister of Indigenous Services must prioritize education and schools for all Indigenous Peoples for a safe return to school for September 2021.

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)

As stated in the July 19th science briefing, “given the importance of indoor air quality for overall health and learning, achieving adequate ventilation in schools is an important investment to support improved health, academic performance and to assist in preventing the spread of several infectious diseases.”

The recommendations for achieving and maintaining adequate air quality through ventilation and filtration, as taken directly from the July 19, 2001 science briefing, are as follows:

  1. A systematic approach to identifying and prioritizing schools for ventilation upgrades should be undertaken. As a starting point, schools that do not meet the appropriate minimum ventilation guidelines from The American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 62.1-2019, should be prioritized for upgrades.
  2. Invest in school heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system infrastructure and regular maintenance. This is of particular importance in schools where the system does not support good indoor air quality. HVAC systems can be optimized for a variety of objectives which may change in priority depending on the context, e.g., COVID-19 pandemic, extreme cold/heat events.
  3. During the pandemic, HVAC system function has been recommended to be optimized for respiratory particle removal (e.g., use of the highest rated Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value (MERV) filter that can be accommodated by the system, regular inspection of filters assembly, routine replacement of filters). In consultation with experts in physical plant design, air exchange rate and outdoor air intake can be increased. The limits of what is possible may be dictated by thermal comfort, humidity, and outdoor air quality.
  4. Consideration can be given to increasing ventilation/filtration above the minimum ASHRAE guidelines, where possible, where more respiratory aerosols are likely to be generated (e.g., music room, auditorium, cafeteria, gymnasium).
  5. Additional strategies can be used to improve air quality while awaiting HVAC system upgrades including the use of available outdoor learning environments; the opening of windows; and the use of portable air cleaners with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter units in classrooms may be considered in spaces/classrooms with limited ability to achieve adequate ventilation (i.e., unable to open windows, no/insufficient HVAC ventilation), taking into consideration the transmission risk (e.g., age, classroom activities, community epidemiology). Please see page 19-20 of the science briefing for detailed recommendations on portable air cleaners. 
  6. Monitoring ventilation: It is important that HVAC and supplemental ventilation/filtration systems are regularly maintained and that measures are checked with the goal of optimization (e.g., air exchange rates, outdoor air intake, temperature, humidity). Carbon dioxide (CO2) levels can serve as a proxy measure for overall ventilation, but the CO2 level does not necessarily correlate with SARS-CoV-2 transmission risk. While CO2 monitoring has been suggested to be helpful when done properly, it requires expertise and communication and should not detract from ventilation upgrades.

Fix Our Schools urges the Ontario Science Table to acknowledge that all of these recommendations also require adequate, stable funding from the provincial government. And, while we agree that ventilation upgrades must be pursued immediately, we also must emphasize the importance of ultimately having in place:

  • commonly defined and understood standards for indoor air quality (IAQ)
  • acceptable tools and methods to ensure that all Ontario classrooms meet those IAQ standards

A July 20, 2021 Toronto Star article entitled, “What are Durham schools doing to improve ventilation, air quality for this fall?” outlines details on the ventilation and air-quality improvements that will be in place as students return to the classroom in four local school boards. Yet, readers are left wondering what these improvements have achieved in terms of outcomes of improved IAQ in classrooms.

A July 15, 2021 Toronto Star article entitled, “Ontario is opening up for Step 3: What you need to know as you head inside to share air with strangers” also outlines steps being taken to improve the indoor air quality of businesses and public spaces. Yet, readers are left wondering what actually constitutes “acceptable” IAQ (i.e. standards). These gaps must be filled with standards and measurement tools.

Hand Hygiene

As the July 19th science briefing outlines, “routine, frequent and proper hand hygiene (soap and water or hand sanitizer) is important in limiting transmission and should continue to be encouraged in schools. Routine hand hygiene is also beneficial for the prevention of many other childhood infections that have the potential to disrupt school attendance (e.g., gastrointestinal viral illnesses).”

Fix Our Schools urges the Ontario Science Table to acknowledge that access to proper hand-washing facilities is wanting in many Ontario classrooms, as is illustrated in this video. Accessible, effective hand-washing facilities require adequate, stable funding from the provincial government, as does having sufficient caretakers in each school to ensure soap dispensers are filled in a timely manner.

There is much work to be done in to ensure schools are safe and healthy environments for all students, teachers and education workers – not only as the Ford government and the Trudeau government plan for and invest in a safe return to school this coming September, but for the long-term.

 

Will Ford Make a Decision or Simply Let the Clock Run Out?

May 29, 2021

We’ve said it before and we will say it again. Since the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Premier Ford and Minister Lecce have consistently failed to prioritize Ontario’s children, their schools and education, and their mental health. Full stop.

Last week, when Premier Ford announced metrics for a plan to re-open Ontario. One glaring omission was a re-opening plan for Ontario’s schools. A week later, there is still no plan in place, nor are there any metrics identified for when schools might safely re-open. Instead, Premier Ford has opted for a “consultative approach” to decision-making.

This change in approach was surprising from someone who, until recently, did not even take the advice of a Science Table put together specifically to provide consult on COVID decisions. It begs the question whether Premier Ford is truly concerned with making a good decision, or whether this is a technique to:

a) ensure he is not held accountable for any decision on re-opening schools?

b) run the clock so long that he avoids having to make any decision, and simply allows Ontario’s students and their families to continue to be mired in uncertainty?

And so, here we are heading into June, coming down from a third wave that, had Premier Ford adopted this more consultative approach earlier, could have been far less devastating. And so, here we are heading into June, and Ontario’s children and families continue to struggle to manage the challenges of both online learning and ongoing uncertainty. Premier Ford’s inaction and failure to prioritize Ontario’s students has been a constant during the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Fix Our Schools always endeavours to be forward-thinking and solution-oriented, this brief review of recent history in Ontario clearly shows that our provincial government has consistently opted for inaction, the wrong actions, lack of transparency, and downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19 instead of taking actions based on research, data, and the recommendations of its own Science Table and experts. Recent history also shows us that the Ford government has never truly prioritized the importance of publicly funded schools and education; and that our provincial government has never truly prioritized the health and well-being of Ontario’s students, families, teachers, and education workers.

Aside from bringing clarity on metrics and a plan for the remainder of the 2020/21 school year, the Ford government must also be looking ahead to the 2021/22 school year. When Ontario’s students head back to school this coming September, wouldn’t it be thrilling if schools were filled with fully vaccinated people? Prioritizing Ontario’s students, their teachers and education workers to be fully vaccinated by August 24 (First Day of School Minus 14 days!) seems like one step towards a safe September. Already, at a local level, we are seeing certain Ontario regions move ahead with a focus on full vaccination of students.

While we’re on the topic of September, wouldn’t it be thrilling if every classroom was properly ventilated and metrics were in place for indoor air quality for our students to ensure not only their health but also an optimum learning environment? Wouldn’t it be thrilling if the Ford government actually started investing in schools to eliminate the $16.3-B disrepair that existed in these buildings even before COVID?

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that huge change is possible in very short-order when there is the political will for that change.

Ontario’s Children Deserve So Much Better

May 18, 2021

“Leadership is not a rank, it is a responsibility. Leadership is not about being in charge, it is about taking care of those in your charge. ”           – Simon Sinek

During the last 14 months, Premier Ford and Minister Lecce have consistently failed to take care of Ontario’s children, their schools and education, and their mental health. Full stop.

Let’s Do Our Part as Citizens to Advocate for Ontario’s Children

As Ontario’s children continue to learn online and struggle to manage the ongoing uncertainty and complexity of this pandemic, Fix Our Schools urges every parent, grandparent, aunt, uncle, teacher, education worker, and caring citizen to take a few minutes this week to advocate for our children. Please contact Premier Ford at premier@ontario.ca or 416-325-1941, and Minister Lecce at stephen.lecce.pc.ola.org or 416-325-2600, as well as your local MPP.

As a campaign that has been advocating for safe, healthy, well-maintained schools since 2014, we suspect that most of you are as disappointed as we are in our provincial’s government failure to take care of Ontario’s children, their schools and education, and their mental health. So we urge you to share your concerns, frustrations, and disappointments with our provincial leaders. Tell them how school closures and online learning are impacting the children in your life.  

When enough people take action and raise their voice collectively, positive change is possible. Solutions can be found and funding can be found when the political will exists to focus on a priority. Let’s work together to make Ontario’s children a priority now. 

As two doctors wrote in an opinion piece entitled, For the sake of the kids, don’t write off the school year just yet, “we cannot let children and youth become the pandemic’s collateral damage. School doors should be the first to open and the last to close.“

A Key Part of Prioritizing Ontario’s Children is to Prioritize Schools

Fix Our Schools has advocated for seven years for safe, healthy, well-maintained schools that provide environments conducive to learning and working. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began in Spring 2020, prioritizing schools as critical infrastructure has become essential. The need for stable, adequate provincial funding to address the $16.3-billion of disrepair that existed in Ontario’s schools prior to the pandemic is evident, as is a standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools. And certainly, the need for proper ventilation in classrooms and schools to prevent COVID’s aerosol spread has received a lot of attention during the pandemic.

In a recent CBC interview, Dr. Fisman, an epidemiologist at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and one of the co-authors of a recent Lancet paper about the airborne nature of COVID, noted that indoor spaces (where people from different households gather, like schools) “need to be well ventilated by opening the windows, cleaning the air with HEPA filters, or upgrading ventilation systems.”  In this May 10, 2021 Globe and Mail opinion piece, Dr. Fisman furthers his call to action that our primary public health policies to mitigate the spread of COVID must shift from two metres distancing and hand-washing to ventilation and high-quality masks. Fisman suggests that monitoring ventilation using portable carbon dioxide monitors is key to success, as is opening windows and improving ventilation or air filtration when ventilation systems are poor. There are many schools (and wings within Ontario schools) without any mechanical ventilation.

In a May 17, 2021 investigation piece in the Toronto Star entitled, “Blind spots raised over ventilation rules“, ventilation is cited as key: “Based on the latest scientific evidence, two metres distance with masking may not be sufficient if ventilation is poor or unknown indoors“. And, one dad in Quebec took air quality testing into his own hands and found that schools without air purifiers have three to four times more COVID-cases.

All of these findings confirm the SickKids report recommendations provided to our provincial government back in June, 2020, stating that proper ventilation was going to be a key to safe schools and classrooms amidst the COVID-pandemic. At that time, Fix Our Schools crowd-sourced ventilation issues across the province and found an alarming number of classrooms with no windows, windows that did not open, and schools with no mechanical ventilation systems. As we shared with Global TV in early September, “while the Ontario government has allocated $50 million in funding to improve HVAC systems in schools, it came only two months before classes were due to begin. It also came long after SickKids’ report cited ventilation as an important element in a safe reopening, as well as guidance from the Public Health Agency of Canada”. And as we expressed in this late August news piece, “the province knew months ago that air quality issues would need to addressed, and it should have allocated the funding sooner. On the ground, principals, teachers, school boards, education workers will actually make this a safe environment, but it will be a herculean effort. It will be underfunded by the Province, and it will be a small miracle that it all comes together.”

 

Almost eleven months from when we first crowd-sourced data from you about ventilation in schools and nine months from the time that our provincial government announced an initial $50-M in funding for ventilation, what does ventilation look like now in your local school? We’re interested in once again crowd-sourcing real, on-the-ground information from parents, teachers, caretakers, principals, and education workers. We asked you before and we’re asking again now to please contact us today with the following:

  • name of your local school
  • any ventilation improvements that have been made (ventilation system improvement projects, introduction of air purifiers to classrooms, ensuring windows can be open)
  • any ventilation issues you may still have concerns about
  • your local MPP and/or the name of your provincial riding.

We will compile this data over the coming weeks and share our findings. Ontario’s children have been failed time and again during the COVID-pandemic. They deserve better. The way to achieve this is to create the political will within the Ford government to actually start prioritizing children, their schools and education, and their mental health.

Our Public Schools: Critical Infrastructure In Need of True Investment

May 11, 2021

Public Schools are Critical Infrastructure – as are Paid Sick Days

The Oxford English dictionary defines infrastructure as, “the basic physical and organizational structures and facilities needed for the operation of a society or enterprise.” Since the inception of the Fix Our Schools campaign back in 2014, we’ve proposed that publicly funded schools are critical infrastructure and must be prioritized and funded as such by both our provincial and federal governments.

Amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of prioritizing schools as critical infrastructure has been highlighted. Issues such as the $16.3-billion repair backlog in Ontario’s schools prior to the pandemic’s start, a lack of any standard of good repair for Ontario’s schools, and the need for proper ventilation in classrooms and schools to prevent COVID’s aerosol spread have all come to the forefront.

More recently, Fix Our Schools joined the call for paid sick days, recognizing that addressing the root causes of COVID-19 spread in communities was absolutely necessary for public schools to be considered safe for in-person learning. In essence, a paid sick days program has become a necessary part of our public infrastructure that enables Ontario’s workers to stay home when feeling unwell, get tested for COVID, self-isolate if needed, and get vaccinated. 

The Ford government was incredibly slow to recognize paid sick days as critical public infrastructure. After 15 months of workplace outbreaks being a key driver in COVID-19 spread, our provincial government finally came to the table with a paid sick days plan. This plan, coming amidst a horrific third wave, has been declared “pitifully inadequate” by opposition parties and medical establishment. Workers only receive 3 days (instead of 10-14 as recommended), and the plan is only temporary, expiring in September 2021.

Ventilation and Air Quality in Classrooms and Schools

The COVID-19 pandemic has certainly highlighted that public schools are critical infrastructure in our society. The need for ventilation in classrooms has become a priority as good ventilation was proven to significantly reduce COVID transmission. Fix Our Schools has always advocated for good ventilation and air quality as integral to creating healthy, safe, optimum learning environments, and we began exerting pressure on our provincial government as early as June 2020 to prioritize investing in schools as critical infrastructure to ensure a safe re-opening of Ontario’s public schools.

By mid-June, the Ford government had issued a loose “approach” to school re-opening in Ontario that recognized improved ventilation in classrooms and schools as a key factor in safe reopening but, surprisingly, the Ford government did not allocate any new funding to school boards to make ventilation improvements. This was akin to a parent sending a child to a grocery store to buy the family’s groceries and giving them zero dollars to do so – a clear set-up for failure.

By the end of June, Fix Our Schools had crowd-sourced details on ventilation in classrooms across Ontario, and the news was not good.

In fact, many schools across the province have classrooms with no windows, windows that do not open, and/or windows that only open a tiny bit – hardly conducive to good air-flow and ventilation:

“The HVAC system at York Humber High School in Toronto has been broken for more than a decade.”

“My daughter attends Tom Thomson School in Burlington. Her classroom this year only had windows along the top of the outside classroom wall. These windows were not reachable, provided very little natural light, and did not open.“

“Harry Bowes Public School in Whitchurch-Stouffville is a lovely school and built within the past 20 years. However, the air circulation is terrible, and windows barely even open. Most teachers and students are continually sick and allergies are a problem while in the building as well.”

“Memorial City Elementary School in Hamilton is 100 years old and the dust coming out of the ventilation system seems that old too. While the windows are newer, the tracks are so badly gummed up that only a couple can be opened and they cannot open much.”

“At Mount Hope School in Hamilton, the upper-level windows do not open at all and the lower level windows only open a bit.”

“As a parent, I’ve been concerned about poor ventilation, no fresh air at Equinox Alternative School in Toronto for years! I am a volunteer in the school and can confirm it is almost never a comfortable temperature. With the added serious concerns regarding COVID-19, and the clear medical guidance (commissioned by the Province!) that fresh air can help reduce transmission, it’s the time to invest in windows.”

“At Earl of March Secondary School in Ottawa, there are many interior classrooms that do not have windows. The school is 50 years old and the HVAC has never worked properly.”

“At Holy Trinity Catholic Elementary School in Sudbury, the kindergarten classroom has no windows. It used to be a resource room, but was converted into a regular classroom due to increased enrollment.”

And still, no funding provided by our provincial government so that school boards could actually start addressing ventilation issues. In fact, even by the end of July, the Ford government had not provided any additional funding for school boards to use for ventilation improvements. As of late July, Minister Lecce was still insisting that the routine $1.4-B/year funding for school repair and renewal (NOTE: this inadequate level of “investment” had led to a $16.3-B repair backlog in Ontario schools), ought to be sufficient for school boards to make schools safe to re-open amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. This was recognized as untenable, as evidenced by the Toronto Star Editorial Board’s piece on July 27, 2020 entitled, “Ontario’s back-to-school plan must come with cash“, “whatever the exact amount, it will be money well spent. As a society, we have to figure out a way to make the return to school both successful and safe. When the province unveils its back-to-school plan this week, it should also provide its own estimate of the cost — and assure Ontarians that it will find the money. Students, parents, and educators deserve no less.“ 

It was not until July 30, that the Ford government started to realize that school boards would, in fact, require additional funding to make schools safe for re-opening. Too late to make a difference for a September re-opening, Education Minister Lecce finally announced a mere $50-M in funding for school boards to improve ventilation in classrooms, waiting a full two months after SickKids had clearly identified ventilation as a key element to safe in-person learning. The $50-M in funding for ventilation equated to approximately $10,000 per school in Ontario. This was too little funding provided far too late – mere weeks before schools were re-opening.

Fix Our Schools identified that ventilation continued to be a big concern in Ontario’s schools as of late August – mere weeks before schools were meant to re-open. Experts agreed with this assessment:

As Ontario’s children are relegated to exclusive at-home learning for the third time amidst this pandemic, ventilation continues to be a hot topic. It is one of the keys to safe in-person learning amidst a pandemic, and our hope is that good ventilation and air quality will continue to be prioritized well beyond this pandemic as a key element of safe, healthy, effective school infrastructure.

Moving Forward in Education Planning

Education Minister Lecce just made the annual GSN (Grants for Student Needs) announcements, which provide further details to Ontario’s school boards on how previously announced funding in the provincial budget must be allocated. Economist Ricardo Tranjan reminded us that the last provincial budget in November did not contain good news for education funding.

Minister Lecce also proudly revealed “additional funding” of $1.6-B for COVID-related costs that had not been included in the most recent provincial budget. This announcement was received with skepticism by many. Liz Stuart, president of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers’ Association, commented that this provincial funding “does not keep pace” with boards’ actual costs and “while Minister Lecce trumpets ‘additional funding’ to respond to COVID-19, it should not be lost on anyone that he is providing the same inadequate amount as last year.”

Embedded in Minister Lecce’s announcements last week was also a clear intent to move forward with cementing online learning as a choice within our public education system. This seems like yet another example of the Ford government using the cover of the COVID-pandemic to push its own political agenda; in this instance – an expansion of online learning. 

 

Noticeably absent from the provincial announcements last week was any discussion of whether Ontario’s schools might re-open at all this school year for in-person learning. As Dr. Daphne Korczak, a child and adolescent psychiatrist and Chair of the Canadian Pediatric Society’s Mental Health Task Force and Dr. Mark Feldman, a pediatrician and vice president of the Canadian Pediatric Society, wrote in an opinion piece entitled, For the sake of the kids, don’t write off the school year just yet, “Is the plan to quietly let the clock run down, rather than to determine how to provide students with at least a few weeks of quasi-normalcy and closure — so important at the end of the year — especially for students in transition to new schools and new surroundings?

As physicians, we support evidence-based measures that will stem this third wave. We are part of the health care system, and we worry about it becoming overwhelmed. We are also concerned about the well-being of our colleagues in adult medicine, who have borne an unimaginable burden over these past 14 months.

But we cannot let children and youth become the pandemic’s collateral damage.

School doors should be the first to open and the last to close.“

While Minister Lecce and Premier Ford claim to have prioritized children and education amidst the pandemic, their announcements last week certainly do not support this claim.

Premier Ford: Get to Work Now!

April 27, 2021

Amidst a crushing third wave of COVID, Ontario students, families, teachers, and education workers are currently contending with the third shutdown of schools, and any in-person learning. Heart-breaking, overwhelming, disappointing, and stressful are just a few of the adjectives people have been sharing with us to describe how this feels. Ontario’s students deserve to get back to school and in-person learning as soon as safely possible.

What Could Have Been Done Differently?

While Fix Our Schools always endeavours to be forward-thinking and solution-oriented, we feel that a brief review of recent history is needed in order to learn, and move forward. And, recent history in Ontario clearly shows that our provincial government has consistently opted for inaction, the wrong actions, and downplaying the seriousness of COVID-19 instead of taking actions based on research, data, and the recommendations of its own Science Table and experts. Recent history also shows us that the Ford government has never truly prioritized the importance of publicly funded schools and education; and that our provincial government has never truly prioritized the health and well-being of Ontario’s students, families, teachers, and education workers.

In Spring 2020, a forward-looking provincial government could have taken the opportunity, while students learned at home, to conduct repairs and maintenance that can be challenging (and sometimes dangerous) to do while students are in school.

In May 2020, Fix Our Schools noted that “while it is clearly a challenging time in our education system, as students and teachers alike grapple with at-home learning, there would be a benefit to conducting construction projects in schools at this time. In recent years, the volume of reactive repairs needed at schools has necessitated that construction projects, such as roofing, often get done while students are trying to learn in these buildings. So a “silver lining” of this current pandemic situation, when children are absent from schools, is that many construction projects could get completed while these buildings are virtually empty.”

In Summer 2020, the Ford government could have listened to the science, research, and data presented and invested the funding that was actually required to ensure that physical distancing was possible in all classrooms, that all classrooms had adequate ventilation, and that every school had adequate caretaking staff for hand hygiene to be easily accessible and available. As early as June 2020, SickKids cited proper ventilation as an important element in any safe return to school plan. At that point, Fix Our Schools began collecting information from across Ontario about the state of ventilation in Ontario’s schools.

We heard from dozens of parents, educators, and education workers across the province with a myriad of issues pertaining to ventilation, including classrooms without windows, windows that do not open at all or that only open a tiny bit, and some older schools and portables without HVAC systems to bring in fresh air from outside. Fix Our Schools shared those details and urged citizens to contact Premier Ford, Minister Lecce, and their local MPP to request adequate funding to address ventilation issues in schools and classrooms. However, the Ford government provided only $50-million of funding for ventilation improvements ($10,000 per school) in August 2020 – months after SickKids first identified ventilation as a key aspect of a safe return to school. 

In Fall 2020, Ontario schools did open for in-person learning. However, a significant portion of families living in “hot spot communities”, where COVID rates were high, chose to keep their children home for online learning. Families made this difficult choice because the in-person learning options at local schools did not feel safe, knowing that community spread was significant. Throughout the Fall months, Minister Lecce and Premier Ford continued to claim Ontario’s schools were safe, without ever mentioning that their statistics relied heavily on families in hot spot communities keeping their children out of school to pursue online learning. This fact is rarely mentioned in media coverage of public education during the pandemic and represents yet another way in which marginalized communities have been disproportionately negatively impacted by the COVID pandemic.

In Winter 2021, our provincial government continued to ignore the recommendations of SickKids, medical professionals, public health professionals, education professionals, and, indeed, it ignored the recommendations of civil servants within the Ministry of Education when this government implemented only “half-measures” to ensure the safety of students and education workers in the classroom amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.  Instead, it chose to politicize the issue of safe, healthy schools in the midst of a pandemic, and continued to underfund Ontario schools and its education system, all the while claiming it prioritized Ontario’s children.

As Spring 2021 continues to unfold, we have seen Premier Ford and his government choose to cling to the same playbook of inaction, ignorance, and playing politics amidst a horrific third wave that has overrun our ICUs and shuttered our schools once again. As one member of the Ontario Science Table, Andrew Morris, said after Ford’s announcements on Friday, April 16, “It was mind-boggling. I’m still in shock“.  On April 20 2021 Ontario’s Science Table came forward with a very clearly articulated outline of what should have been done, and a clear plan for what still can be done to move forward and stem the tide of this crushing third wave.

The Way Forward

Doug Ford, please get to work on quickly implementing the recommendations clearly outlined by Ontario’s Science Table:

  1. Permit only truly essential indoor workplaces to stay open, and strictly enforce COVID-safety rules in those workplaces
  2. Pay essential workers to stay home when they are sick, exposed, and need time to get vaccinated
  3. Accelerate the vaccination of essential workers and those living in hot spots
  4. Limit mobility
  5. Focus on public health guidance that works, encouraging outdoor small gatherings, with physical distancing and masks
  6. Keep people safely connected, allowing people from different households to meet outdoors with masks and physical distance, and encouraging safe outdoor activities

Ontario’s children need to get back to school and in-person learning as soon as is safely possible. The ball is in your court Premier Ford. You’ve wasted critical weeks now on inaction, actions that make no sense or cause further harm, and on downplaying the health crisis in which we now find ourselves. The answers and the way forward have been presented to you time and again. Please step up now, and do what needs to be done to address the root causes of COVID spread and get Ontario’s students back to school.