The provincial government announced $51 million in approved funding for classrooms for a safe return to school, during a press conference on September 8.
Education Minister Gordon Wyant spoke on behalf of the government about what people can expect from this funding.
He was also very appreciative of all the administrators, teachers and staff who’ve worked hard to make this school year possible.
“The efforts have not gone unnoticed and you have all stepped up to learn the protocols and processes and prepare your classrooms and your teachings to accommodate this exceptional time,” he said during the press conference. “It’s been a lot of work done by everyone to ensure our schools are safe as possible.”
The funding is part of the over $150 million in the COVID contingency fund for education from provincial, federal and school division savings. Of the $51 million approved today, $41 million comes from provincial funding, and $10 million represents the expenditure of the remaining school division savings.
Forty-six applications have been approved to provide new funding to school divisions, qualified independent schools and historical high schools.
In total, the following funding has been approved: $19.1 million for sanitization; $6.0 million for equipment and furniture; $13.2 million for supports for immunocompromised students; $9.5 million for additional distance learning capacity; and $4 million for technology upgrades.
As a result of this new funding, a total of 443 custodial support, teachers and staff are expected to be hired. This is in addition to the more than 200 staff projected to be hired as a result of the increased funding in the 2020-21 Budget.
One of the concerns raised during the press conference is the importance of substitute teachers and does the government anticipate that demand because especially this year, if teachers and even students have any illness they are required to stay home as safety precaution.
“We want to make sure that everyone in the schools are safe. So we do anticipate that there will be demand on substitute teachers, an increased demand over what likely is in the budgets of school divisions. But we don’t know what that number is going to be and our priority now is to make sure that we have a safe return to school in the immediate time.”
The Ministry of Education has allocated $10 million for PPE expenses,
“We’ve spent $2.3 million on masks so far, the majority of which have been received and have been distributed now. The balance of those masks will be ordered as we need them. There’s an inventory currently being done with school divisions to see what there additional needs are, Wyant said. “If there’s additional resources or additional masks and shields that need to be ordered, they will be ordered immediately.”
There is $64 million remaining in the COVID contingency fund for education. The next intake for school division funding applications will be on December 1.