With back-to-school on the horizon, the provincial government has released its back-to-school plan.
The plan has undergone several changes since June, and it is possible that it could change again should there be updates from Public Health or an outbreak in the province.
The terms of teachers’ employment do not allow for speaking directly to the press, so questions about what the classroom might look like were directed to the NBTA.
Meg Cunningham had the chance to speak with NBTA president Rick Cuming about how teachers might cope with the new changes.
M: So I’m speaking to you today about the back to school plan. And to clarify, because there have been many press releases and documents, I’m talking about the 16 page comprehensive back to school guide for parents and the public. And were teachers or the NBTA involved in making the back to school plan?
R: In the creation of the plan, no, but we’ve had significant input into a number of the topics that have informed that plan. Back in June, we had received the first part with some of those schematics and we weren’t implicated maybe at that time, but over the summer we’ve really had numerous opportunities to provide feedback into a lot of parts that have informed the plan, as well as meetings with public health and WorkSafe and chief medical health officer. So we’ve had lots of lots of input into the parts of this plan.
M: Okay, and when you say “we” do you mean the NBTA?
R: Yes.
M: Great, thank you. Are you a teacher yourself? I imagine so.
R: Yes, I am. Yeah, I’m in what would be in the 23rd year of teaching. I teach at John Caldwell school usually. And the presidency is a two year position of an elected position. And so I was elected. My election began, or my term began last year. So I’m starting my second year of that, and then when I’m done, I’ll return back to my high school classroom in Grand Falls.
M: Okay, thank you. So you mentioned that you were given a preliminary sort of plan ahead of time, and that would have been in June.
R: Well… there was a public release of the plan, with a press conference with the minister and the Deputy Minister. So there was the first outline of a return to school plan in June, that just sort of mentioned the basic the broad strokes of students that high school students would be in halftime and middle school students would be have regular class sizes but be bubbled, and then some of the outlines for elementary the K to two class sizes and as well as a three to five level.
M: Okay. Have you, when I say you I mean the NBTA or even just yourself as a teacher, received any additional information other than what was released to the public?
R: So just recently… and teachers had been waiting for more details, and this isn’t the fault of government. They were working throughout the summer and the entire teams were doing everything they could to provide these details, but there’s just so much to be determined. But teachers were waiting on a more detailed plan, and that has been shared out with teachers or it’s in the process, it depends on the communication mechanism in each district. But there is more information and a more detailed plan that has been shared with teachers and they’ve been waiting. They’ve been waiting for that. And the principals, they’re the unsung heroes in this system right now, because they have been trying to create these operational plans for their schools that’s particular to their context. And now that the more detailed plans have come out, they can continue this hard work that they’ve been doing over the summer, trying to juggle all of the all of the conditions and really operationalize. So the principals are going to be able to operationalize the guidelines from the province. And really making that work in their schools has been a lot of work and so they’ve been waiting for these details as well.
M: Okay, thank you. How much assistance will teachers receive, either from the district or the NBTA, or the province when the school reopens? Are there gonna be any more additional resources then what’s already available?
R: We don’t have exact commitments of what resources are going to be particularly there. We really need to see that in the week before students arrive and when our teachers first arrive into their schools, it’s going to be important that they have the opportunity to really go over the operational plan to provide some input there… And there’s going to be quite a bit of training and resources that are going to be needed for teachers to teach those safety mechanisms and all those safety procedures in our schools. The learning in the first few days and weeks for students isn’t going to be what traditionally has been. We’re going to have schools that are going to be doing staggered entry with their students and trying to really make sure that we can model and teach all of those health and safety procedures and teachers are going to have to have the training to do that as well.
M: Okay, but you’re still waiting to see exactly what that training might look like or where it might come from.
R: That’ll all be in that first week when teachers are back, and the districts are making those plans. So we don’t have exact details of what’s occurring on what days because each of the districts would figure out how they’re rolling that out to their schools. But those would be things that we would expect are happening in that first week back.
M: Okay, thank you. Attempts are being made to reduce class sizes, depending on the grade level, like you mentioned, elementary schools and high schools are going to have reduced class sizes. But it does not appear that middle schools are going to have reduced class sizes. Do you have any concerns about that as social distancing won’t really be possible?
R: Well, and that’s been the question, we do get regular questions. And teachers are wondering how it is they’re going to teach and what they’re going to teach and other questions that we do get are about the regular class sizes at middle school and on mask use. So we have expressed those concerns to public health, and really we are very encouraged that the Chief Medical Officer of health has been part of this plan. She’s taking part in the press conferences as well, because we’ve advocated that the answers to the questions that teachers have, like you’re asking, about bubbles and how are the health and safety of our students and our teachers going to be maintained. We really need the answers provided to teachers from public health. We think it’s the experts that that should provide those. We’ve been assured that everything in the school plan meets or exceeds the minimum requirements that public health has put forth. So you know, there are concerns from public health on this but teachers are still concerned and they need some of those reassurances that the bubbles and the configuration are going to be safe for their students and safe for themselves.
M: Okay, thank you. What will be done for students who require personalized learning plans?
R: In terms of inclusion, well the teachers are always committed, and they have been committed to delivering high quality education to all of our students. Really, there have been no changes to the policy itself. And so it’s the schools that are going to have to in their operational plans, but in the teams, they’re going to have to really meet all those needs. They’ve been doing this for years, and they’re going to have to continue, but it’s going to look different and it’s really going to look different in every school. All those details in terms of how that is going to work in every school is going to have to be a part of every principal’s operational plan that they’re creating. And that’s why it’s important that really all of the teacher teams have the input into those plans, because I know parents would want a lot of detail of what that’s going to look like. But it’s really going to depend on each case for each child, but also in the particulars of what resources each school can draw upon and our schools really have such a range and variety of what sizes they have. With the school that I’m at, in Grand Falls, it’s a K to 12 building, and it’s a smaller, certainly a smaller population. So the needs and the resources one school might…vary differently from one that might be in a city. So in some small schools, they may not even see many changes because of these requirements, because maybe they can sort of meet all of those protocols without too many huge changes to schedules. Versus other schools, you know, it may be a really challenging thing for them to reconfigure their space to meet all the physical distancing requirements.
M: Okay, this next question is a two part question.
R: Okay.
M: So the first part is what is the NBTA doing to make sure that their members are safe?
R: Well, we’ve taken… the health and safety has been front of mind for teachers, and it’s been front of mind for the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association as well. We have had meetings with public health, we’ve had meetings with WorkSafe, because we’ve been concerned about the health and safety of all of our members, the health and safety of students. And we also have a sector of our teachers who would be immunocompromised or have a vulnerable status as well. And so talks are ongoing and we are working, as I said, with WorkSafe and with public health and with government to figure out what accommodations can be made for teachers who might be vulnerable, and as well to make sure that all the safety protocols are in there. When I say we’ve had input with government and back and forth like in some cases we have daily interactions with deputy ministers and assistant deputy ministers and directors down there. We’ve been able to have conversations about the responsibilities for classroom cleaning and provision of personal protective equipment for teachers. And, as I mentioned about our vulnerable teachers, a lot of input into numerous pedagogical and curricular issues and ran even the supervision issues surrounding student transportation. There’s really a whole pile of issues that we’ve been able to try and address and give input into and have seen some changes in terms of what the plan is released now versus what it would have been say a month ago.
M: Okay, so the second part of this question is what will be done if it becomes apparent that the conditions in which teachers are working are not safe?
R: So first if teachers were feeling that they were not in a safe environment, the right to refuse work that would be regulations for, and this isn’t particular to teachers, that would be the refusal for dangerous work from Work Safe. That policy is for any workplace and that’s always in place for teachers in the school. And so those mechanisms, we’ve been working to make sure that WorkSafe is aware that if that’s the mechanism that teachers are going to first express some of their concerns that they’re aware that they’re going to see the operational plans and, and they’re just made sure that the the process was going to be followed if that was the case. The other thing we would expect is teachers reach out to us with their concerns all the time and our Federation… really our Federation staff have open lines of communication with the districts because sometimes it’s not an issue with the department, sometimes things can be resolved with the district. So that ability for members reaching out to us that we can take some of those actions when they’re not safe, if it comes down to anything about outbreaks and any of that, but as soon as anything, any issues in terms of outbreaks and COVID comes in, that’s when public health really takes control of the entire situation and the Chief Medical Officer of health and so it wouldn’t be any of the government departments making those decisions. When an outbreak occurs, it will be public health, that’s in charge.
M: Okay. Will there be supports and resources available for teachers’ mental health as they return to school?
R: For the teachers’ mental health, that will be critical in this coming year and certainly student mental health will be a critical part of the year. The teachers have access to, and for decades now teachers have had a teacher counseling program, which is really a model of what type of counseling program that could be done across the country. New Brunswick has been a leader in that model. And each one of our schools also have wellness committees that are worked on through this teacher counseling program. So there are some direct resources that are specific to teachers. Districts also have mental health resources, a family assisted employee Family Assistance Program. And so there are resources that have traditionally been present. And our concern only would be if the mental health concerns are significant enough that that system wouldn’t become overloaded and those hard working teacher counselors wouldn’t. Hopefully they would be able to service everyone’s needs. So there are mental health resources out there and available for teachers.
M: Okay. Can you envision calling a strike vote as a result of teaching during the COVID-19 outbreak?
R: In terms of a collective agreement or an issue in terms of a strike vote, the only way those are the only mechanisms that happen around collective bargaining. And so, and we aren’t set our current collective agreement wouldn’t expire until February of 2021. And so we’re, we’re, we’re in that collective agreement. So there wouldn’t really be anything in terms of job action on our horizon.
M: Okay, thank you. Is there anything you feel I have missed or I haven’t given you the chance to talk about concerning the plan that you think is important for the public to know?
R: Well in the return to school plan that we have in New Brunswick, when we look around the country and even our Atlantic neighbors. I think New Brunswick’s plan is better than what we’re seeing in most other places. Is it perfect? No. But it is a vast improvement in terms of what we’re seeing with our neighbors. So we’re really happy that public health is involved. We’re really happy that we’re getting regular updates. We’ve seen if you look at what happened to Nova Scotia… they’ve had a recent change to their mask usage in classrooms. And when I met with their president and all the Atlantic province presidents two weeks ago, that wasn’t on the radar. And so I think that underscores the fact that a mask usage policy would change quickly. I think it underscores the importance that public health is involved in these decisions, and that our plan is vetted through public health and that the involvement is there. It really underscores the need for that so that it can be malleable enough and revised when needed because the science of this virus is evolving and the plans may need to evolve to keep up with it.
According to the WorkSafeNB website, employees in New Brunswick have the right to refuse work if they believe it presents an unsafe situation.
The same principles apply for managing workplace health and safety and work refusals during a pandemic as they do during normal conditions.
New Brunswick teachers are encouraged to reach out to CHMA to discuss the return to school at reporting@chmafm.com.
Participants can request to remain anonymous.
