(file photo/CKOM News Staff)

By Angela Brown

Support for education

CUPE hopes to see more support for education workers

Jan 7, 2021 | 5:12 PM

CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) is concerned about protecting education support workers against possible exposure to COVID-19, and would like to see a provincial mandate put forward.

Rob Westfield, chair of the Saskatchewan Education Workers’ steering committee for CUPE and also an education support worker himself, said rather than each school division in the province implementing its own directives there should be one common policy for all.

“All of the support workers want to work,” he said. “We want to educate students. However, we also want to be safe. And we want the students to be safe as well.”

Westfield said if there were one singular policy for all school divisions, then everyone would receive the same level of safety.

Along with those safety policies, CUPE members would like improvements to contact tracing so education support workers have more information on whether they were in close contact with a person who tested positive for the virus.

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Westfield said he understands the need to protect people’s privacy, but safety is also a concern.

“They are being notified that an individual let’s say in a classroom has COVID,” he said. “However, they have not been notified which individual it was.”

Westfield said for example if there are 30 students in a classroom, it is difficult to determine whether a support staff person was in close contact with a particular student who may have tested positive.

He said more consistent reporting of COVID-19 outbreak numbers in school divisions would help provide more accurate information.

CUPE also has questions about Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), the type of facemasks provided staff, and the level of protection.

“There are a lot of different policies being implemented throughout the province – these different policies really affect the safety of the students and staff,” Westfield said.

BattlefordsNOW’s request for comment from the Ministry of Education was not immediately returned.

As part of the Safe Schools Plan update in November, the province indicated masks are required for all students, employee and visitors in schools, with the exception of the time they are consuming food or beverages. This applies to all children aged three and up, who are able to wear a mask.

The province’s Chief Medical Health Officer previously recommended high schools with more than 600 students consider transitioning to Level 3 of the Saskatchewan Safe Schools Plan, if necessary, reducing in-class learning and moving to a mix of online/remote learning, as part of a blended learning program.

The province also continues to recommend minimizing physical contact in schools, and practising proper physical distancing to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.

Local divisions following protocols

Among Battlefords area school divisions, Living Sky School Division Director of Education Brenda Vickers said the school division is working closely with Saskatchewan Health related to contact tracing and other protocols.

“I certainly appreciate the relationship we have with our partners in health, and that we are being contacted, and contact tracing is happening,” she said. “I haven’t heard anything about concerns from our staff members here.”

Vickers said Living Sky has implemented blended learning at the North Battleford Comprehensive High School.

All schools are wearing masks and practising COVID-19 restrictions.

“As far as I know, things are going well. As well as can be expected,” Vickers said.

“We all want things to go back to the way we were, there is no doubt about it..,” she said. ”I think we are doing the very best we can with it.”

Light of Christ Catholic Schools is following blended learning for John Paul II Collegiate. All schools are following masking requirements.

“We still have our masking protocols in place for both our students and staff,” Director of Education Cory Rideout said. “We have restricted the public access to the building, and increased cleaning protocols and so on… Our staff, our students and our parents are doing a fantastic job, for all of our schools.”

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW