REGINA -- The federal government is sending additional funding for Saskatchewan schools as they prepare to release their return to class plans.
In a release Wednesday, the province said it is set to receive $74.9 million from the Government of Canada.
That funding comes in addition to $40 million in education funding announced by the province last week. Another $40 million is available through school division savings.
“As we work with our sector partners to ensure a safe return to school, we know that there will be increased costs associated with staffing, preparation and supplies,” Gordon Wyant, Saskatchewan's Education Minister, said. “With the federal government’s contribution, there is now up to $150 million available to our education sector for costs associated with a safe return to school.”
RETURN TO SCHOOL
The province said school divisions will post the details of their respective plans and communicate them to parents by the end of day Wednesday.
It said copies of specific school’s plans will be available through school division websites.
The plans are subject to change and can still be updated before students return to classrooms on September 8.
The province said more information about testing for the education sector, including reporting and notification, will be released Thursday.
CONCERN FROM PARENTS, NDP
Families gathered in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building on Wednesday to send the province a message about their school safety concerns. Chalk art messages were written in front of the building with some saying "keep our community safe."
A chalk message reads "Keep our communities safe" in front of the Saskatchewan Legislative Building. Parents and students concerned about COVID-19 safety gathered on August 26, 2020, to send a message to the Government of Saskatchewan. (Cally Stephanow/CTV News)
Sarah Cummings Truszkowski and her children were among those gathered in front of the building.
"Since the lockdown, we have been told by all the top health officials to keep six-feet apart from other people," Cummings Truszkowski said. "In this situation right now, our schools in Saskatchewan are not able to do that yet. We need funding so that we can hire more teachers, and so that we can space out our children safely."
Cummings Truszkowski said she's concerned about the current back to school plan because of the size of classes. She said the whole community should be concerned about the plan. The provincial opposition agrees.
The NDP Education Critic, Carla Beck, said the Government of Saskatchewan should be spending the $74.9 million on reducing classroom sizes in the province.
"This is what the medical evidence is telling us that the concerns are really concentrated in crowded classrooms, where physical distancing can't be maintained, where people are together for long periods of time, and where air circulation is is problematic," Beck said.
Beck said she understands that this is short notice considering the first day of school is less than two weeks away, but said the Government should have been prepared for this months ago.
"If the minister was waiting for cash from the federal government, he's got that now and needs to do now what should have been done months ago," Beck said. "To address these outstanding issues, top of the order I think has to be reducing class sizes."
"Spreading the virus to each other, and then, carrying it, and being asymptomatic possibly, and then passing it on to parents, passing up passing it on to grandparents to neighbours, and then really hurting our community, children," Cummings Truszkowski said.
Her son, Otis, will be going into grade six in the fall. The 11-year-old boy said he, as well as his friends, are also worried about the return to school because they don't feel the current plan is a safe plan for them.
"I want [the Government of Saskatchewan] to put a lot of money into just making sure that everybody in my school and all the other schools are safe," Otis Truszkowski said. "And that we can go back to school but without spreading the coronavirus."
MASKS
Saskatchewan schools have received their first shipment of masks and other PPE.
The Ministry of Education bought six million masks for school divisions earlier this summer. It said the first shipment of masks has been delivered to Saskatchewan’s 27 school divisions, along with full-face shields for staff.
The second shipment is expected to reach school divisions by the first week of school.
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