High CO2 levels in Marshview and Dorchester schools a ‘health and safety issue’
For two years running, two Tantramar area schools have tested high in carbon dioxide ratios for indoor air.
Marshview Middle School and Dorchester Consolidated were tested by the provincial department of education starting in 2021 because they don’t have full mechanical ventilation systems. In 2021, both schools showed peak levels of carbon dioxide above 1500 parts per million, which according to epidemiologist Colin Furness, speaking to U of T News, means staff and students are breathing “stale air.” It also means both schools qualified for another round of testing in 2022.
The province stopped testing in schools with results under 1500 parts per million, testing fewer schools in 2022 than in 2021. That’s despite the fact that some schools, such as Marshview and Dorchester, showed increases year over year. In 2022, Marshview hit 3914 parts per million, the highest of the 37 schools tested that year. Dorchester Consolidated showed peak levels of 2916 parts per million. For comparison, outdoor air is about 400 parts per million in carbon dioxide, according to Furness.
30 out of 37 school showed peak levels above 1500 parts per million, but the Department of Education says that “no concerns have been raised by Public Health about the [Indoor Air Quality] testing results.”
Meanwhile parents like Sackville’s Dave Thomas are concerned. “It’s not a good learning environment when you have CO2 readings that high,” says Thomas.… Continue
Port Elgin grade 8 grads snag national award for disability walk
Two students graduating from Port Elgin Regional School (PERS) this year have been honoured with a Rick Hansen Difference Maker Award for their project hosting a disability walk.
CHMA stopped by the bustling school to meet Maizie Carter and Lexie Lewis, and hear a bit more about their project. We started off talking with teacher Beth Weatherbee about how Maizie and Lexie came to take on their award winning project.
Last year after completing a food security project ahead of schedule, Carter and Lewis were on the lookout for a new project to finish off their grade 7 year. They decided on a disability walk, where students of PERS could briefly experience some of the physical challenges faced by people with disabilities. Students tried out wheelchairs, blindfolds, sound cancelling headphones and went for a walk around the school and in Port Elgin.
The experience was enlightening for some students, says Lexie Lewis. “They said it was a lot harder than they thought,” says Lewis. “And we explained to them, imagine doing that every day, and the amount of challenges that you would run into.”
Lewis said some immediate obstacles were noticed, like large cracks in sidewalks that people in wheelchairs had to navigate around.
The walk was so successful last year that Lewis and Carter hosted another one this year, of their own accord.… Continue
Schools struggle with staff absenteeism, but role of COVID-19 unclear, says teachers’ union
New Brunswick lifted all remaining COVID-19 restrictions just as students returned to classes from March Break two weeks ago.
Some parents have welcomed the end of universal indoor masking at schools.
But others have called for the mandate to remain in place until at least the end of April, with a petition that had gathered nearly 1,500 virtual signatures by Monday.
Previously on CHMA, we heard from Kathleen Gadd, a Mount Allison University graduate and mother of three children, one of the petition’s co-authors.
She warned about issues including a wave of infections hitting the families of teachers and other staff who might be vulnerable to severe COVID.
Since then, reports have emerged of high rates of staff absenteeism, particularly at schools in the Moncton region.
For more on this story, CHMA spoke to Connie Keating, president of the New Brunswick Teachers Association and co-president of the New Brunswick Teachers Federation, the union representing teachers.
Keating is also a longtime teacher who studied at Mount Allison University. In an interview on Friday, she said absenteeism is a major issue across the province.
But it’s unclear whether COVID-19 is the culprit, she said, because reliable data isn’t available.