Liberal majority committee blocks proposals for more details on school reopening plan … again
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At Tuesday’s meeting, NDP education critic Claudia Chender addressed growing angst among parents and school staff about the reopening plan, calling the 36-page document an outline that prioritizes safety in schools but lacks essential operational detail.
Chender put forward a motion to the all-party committee that the group write a letter to Education Minister Zach Churchill asking for the department to provide numbers on school classrooms able to meet social distancing requirements and its communication plan with teachers, staff and parents.
The Dartmouth South MLA also asked that the minister release the results of school ventilation testing that began earlier this month. The province pledged to assess ventilation systems in all schools before reopening on Sept. 8 and last Thursday Churchill said no issues had been found in any schools tested at that point.
Chender’s motion received unanimous support from her three fellow opposition members, NDP Kendra Coombes and Tories Brad Johns and Larry Harrison but the motion was defeated by a unanimous Liberal vote, including chairman Brendan Maguire, vice-chairwoman Suzanne Lohnes-Croft, Bill Horne, Rafah DiCostanzo and Ben Jessome.
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With schools reopening in two weeks, Chender is urging the government to provide more details in the plan, particularly how social distancing would be successfully arranged in classrooms.
‘The Liberal government needs to be more transparent and open about what is happening during these stressful times,’ said Chender in a party news release. ‘Secrecy is only worsening the anxiety that teachers, families and students are feeling.’
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