NDP responds to governments decision to keep schools open

On Sunday morning, the Government of Saskatchewan announced that, as of now, the province’s elementary and high schools will not be closing.

Sunday afternoon, Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili and opposition education critic Carla Beck held their own press conference to address the decision and talk about the plans that need to be made to prepare for potential school closures.

“There was some increase in the clarity of the criteria for when those schools would close down. Now, those criteria still are a little bit vague. It’s not clear yet whether a single case of community transmission would be enough to close down schools,” said Meili.

“We want to hear that clarity. We also want to make one thing clear from our point of view. As we look at what is happening, the way that this disease is spreading around the world, it’s simply a matter of time. It’s a matter of, not if, but when and so that means right now there is a lot that we can do.”

According to a Government of Saskatchewan press release the criteria for schools to close down are, “evidence of sustained transmission within the community, rapid increase of local cases and transmission without a known link to travel or confirmed cases.”

Meili says in this time until the schools are officially closed, planning needs to be done to prepare for when they finally do, and it needs to be in collaboration with all of the key sectors of the province.

“The schools aren’t closing yet but what can we do today to prepare for the moment that they do and to make sure that schools are doing everything they can and have all the supports they need in the lead up for that moment,” he said.

“Involve us and the community as well in making sure that we’ve got opposition and government members and community leaders, first nations leadership, municipal leadership, coming together to come up with a better plan for our economy and for our response to COVID-19 so that we can employ everyone we possibly can in this mission of working together to decrease the negative health and economic impacts of this pandemic.”

According to Beck, some issues that still need to be addressed in the planning process revolve around getting the proper supports in place for teachers and families.

“There are also a lot of students who rely on schools for food security so I think that is something that also needs to be addressed. So those are a number of concerns that we have heard that we would like clarity on and that we would like that message to get in a timely manner to all those who are impacted in these uncertain times,” said Beck.

“I think one of the things that we can do to responsibly respond to this crisis and to those who are very concerned about what is going on in schools is to ensure that people have timely access to the best information that we can provide.”

Meili says he wants to make sure anyone who is missing school or work because of symptoms or precautions to not be punished for staying home.

For students, that means not being marked as absent when missing class and for those missing work, that it is accepted and understood and doesn’t count towards sick days or require a doctor’s note.