Manitoba to hire 100 teachers for support centre while those in schools plead for help

Manitoba is hiring100 teachers and 20 educational assistants to launch a resource centre to support remote learning, while nearly 500 teachers have signed a letter saying they're at abreaking point and desperate for more staff in schools.

"We're doing two or three different jobs at once, and it's not sustainable. The whole system's going to crumble as teachers cannot keep doing what they're doing," saidJennifer Paszkat.

Paszkatteaches music in the Pembina Trails School Division, and is one of the teachers who signed the letter as part of a group calling themselves Advocacy for Education Manitoba.

"We're short substitute teachers. Often principals and vice-principals are having to cover classes."

At a press conference announcing the remote learning support centre,Education Minister Kelvin Goertzensaidstaff will be hired by the provincethrough federal funding announced in August. Theyare not new teachers for the school system.

That federal funding amounted to $85.4million forManitoba, from a$2 billion pot announced by the federal government to help provinces and territories reopen their schools and economies safely.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society (MTS)insists it has seen very little of that $84.5 million and fully supports the lobbying being done by the Advocacy for Education group.

"MTS has repeatedly called for the release of federal funds intended specifically to address our schools' pandemic-related needs. While that money has flowed in other provinces, it has trickledat besthere in Manitoba," said James Bedford, the teachers' society president.

"Our teachers are drowning. Our principals, vice-principals, cliniciansand school staff are drowning. What will it take for the province to release funding intended to keep our schools safe?"

Asked several times by reporters on Monday about what is being done togetmore instructors actually into schools, Goertzenrepeatedly saidthere are resources in place for hiring of teachers at the school level.

"I don't dismiss the fact this is a very challenging time everywhere in society.When we hear those concerns from the school system, absolutely it concerns us," he said.

4active COVID-19outbreaks at schools

School divisions have access to funding from provincial and federal governments and have been using it, hiring 500 teachers since March, he said.

He lauded teachers for their efforts andfor ensuring students remainsafe, citing public health officials who saythe level of COVID-19 transmission is lower in schools than many other places in the province.

Manitoba had recorded 416 cases of COVID-19 in schools as of Friday 310 of those caseswere students, and 106were staff members. The province currently has four active COVID-19outbreaks at schools, with one declared over.

The government has posted dozens of possible exposures at schools across Manitoba on its website,including more than150 exposures at schools in the Winnipeg health regionsince Sept. 25.

"Our teachers have done an incredible job delivering remote and blended learning, and the remote learning support centre will ensure the support necessary for remote learning to be sustained over the long term," Goertzen said, redirecting the conversation back to the topic of the new centre.

"This new centre will provide much-needed support to teachers across the province who are leading remote learning, many for the first time, and to parents who have found themselves in the role of teacher and are in need of resources."

The$10-million centre willsupport teachers delivering remote learningby providinglearning programs, professional development opportunities,instructional coaching andtechnology supports, Goertzen said.

The centrewill fully launch later this month, though some teachers have been accessing it already.

'Breaking down in tears'

A trustee with the Winnipeg School Division echoed the call thathelp is desperately needed to support teachers in the classrooms.

Chris Broughton, chair of finance and personnel for the Winnipeg School Division, said they havehirednearly 100 more teachers this year to help deal with absenteeism and the requirement to split classrooms into several smaller ones.But it's still not enough.

"Teachers are extraordinarily stressed.I know that there are teachers sitting in their cars at lunch because they have nowhere else to go and they'recrying, they're breaking down in tears," he said.

"We're deeply concerned for their mental health."

The division has been spendingtomitigate some of the challenges being juggled by teachers and to make sure that "wellness is front of mind for all of our staff,"Broughton said.

"But at the end of the day, theworkload that our teachers are facing is absolutely incredible and isunsustainable."

He saidthe Winnipeg School Division has not received anything from the federal $84.5 million"and we have no guarantees that we will see a dime from this provincial government."

Regardless, the division has been spending money and intends to track the expenses and seek reimbursement from the province,Broughton said.

System in crisis

Advocacy for Education Manitoba made up of school leaders and support staff from across the provincepenned their letter to Goertzen and Premier Brian Pallister on Sunday, calling for "resources and decisive leadership."

"This is a system in crisis and our staff are beyond exhaustion they are broken," the group said in a news release.

The 490signatories of the letter say the system has reached a critically unsustainable point during the second wave of the pandemic.

They are requestingfunding forreducedclass sizes, mental health supports for students and teachers, digital equity for students and staff who need access to devices and the Internet, and prompt contact tracing and testing for staff and students, among other things.

As part of its efforts to flatten theCOVID-19 curve, the province announced last week it is launching a digital ad campaign about how the virus spreads.

Teachers see that as a slap in the face, Paszkat said.

"The government needs to put money and resources towards education instead of putting it towards ads to tell people to stay home," she said.

Teachers are prepping for multiple jobs because they are being pulled in every direction, which leads to a trickle-down effect,Paszkatsaid.

Students with disabilities are not getting the helpthey requirebecause their teachers are being redeployed into regular classroooms, she said.

"I would be very upset with the government if I had a child who had exceptional needs. I would be upset that my child is not getting the supports they need," Paszkatsaid. "And who's [to] blame? That would be the government. It wouldn't be the teacher's fault nor would it be the school's fault."

If money wereprovided for resources, this wouldn't be the case, she said. Shewants Goertzen to acknowledge the federal government educationfunding has not been spent.

"The government needs to step up and put the money to where it needs to go," Paszkatsaid.

"We've reached the beginning of the breaking point."