School Board’s Instruction on Back To School Concerns Raises Questions From Teachers, MLAs

An email sent out by the human resources department of the Chignecto-Central Regional Centre for Education is causing a stir on social media.

The email says that teachers should not reach out to their local MLAs, the MLAs of the riding they work in or the Minister of Education with their concerns over the Back to School Plan.

Many educators and members of the public have expressed their outrage online in response to this, citing the importance of hearing from teachers in order to have an effective discourse on how schools will be run this year.

Nova Scotia Teachers Union (NSTU) President Paul Wozney says he understands employees have some obligation to be mindful of their public conduct and a reasonable expectation of loyalty to their employer, but it doesn’t apply in this case.

Nova Scotia has a centralized education system, which he says the government set up to make them the sole party accountable for issues with schools.

“Bill 72 wiped out democratically elected school boards and vested all the power in the Ministry of Education, so once you do that you have an obligation to respond to every email and every call that comes in,” said Wozney.

Despite education administration being handled by the province, Wozney would like to see teachers be able to reach out to sources closer to them like principals, but there is a problem with that.

“The issue is principals don’t have any more information than the teachers do, so really all of the details reside at a provincial level, even regional centers don’t have the answers teachers are looking for,” he said.

The concerns teachers have are real and Wozney spoke about one of the most pressing issues they face.

“What teachers know based on the size of their room, the furniture available and the number of students on their lists for September, there is no way we can achieve a metre of separation in many classrooms,” he said.

Lunenburg MLA Suzanne Lohnes Croft, who also serves as Deputy Minister of Education, says she welcomes teachers reaching out to her with their concerns.

She says the email is being taken somewhat out of context as it is more about following the chain of command rather than an attempt to stifle teachers’ opinions.

“I think they were more or less referring to who to call first and there is some truth to that.” She said.

“If teachers have an issue they don’t go right to the school board they contact their administrators in house first then if not resolved it moves up the chain and I think that’s what this email was getting at.”

The government is also prepared to make changes in schools as they see fit throughout the year and she says teachers will be a major guiding factor in that.

“This whole COVID-19 experience changes on a weekly, sometimes daily basis,” said Lohnes Croft.

“The contingencies we’ve built in are being recognized, and just recently our plan was given a B+ by an organization ranking Back to School plans out of Ontario.”

Other MLAs like Darmouth West’s Claudia Chender have also expressed their disappointment in the email and have clarified their offices are not shut to teachers with concerns.

As it stands, students will be returning to school on September 8 and both the NSTU and the government hope they can have effective conversations in that time to improve the Back to School Plan to best accommodate safe learning.