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Education officials grilled on school plan

Education minister, administrators face grilling over back-to-school plans

STU NEATBY POLITICAL REPORTER stu.neatby@theguardian.pe.ca @stu_neatby

School staff and teachers in P.E.I. were not asked about their vaccination status until Sept. 4, the first day back to work after summer.

This was acknowledged by Public Schools Branch director Norbert Carpenter during a meeting of the standing committee on education and economic growth on Sept. 21.

Carpenter appeared before the committee, along with Minister of Education Natalie Jameson and several other senior civil servants working within P.E.I.'s education system. The group faced a volley of questions from Opposition MLAs about the province's back-to-school plan as well as the events leading up to the outbreak of COVID-19 that prompted the closure of West Royalty school.

The back-to-school plan was released on Aug. 23, two weeks before the start of classes. It did not include a vaccine mandate for teachers and staff. Chief public health officer Dr. Heather Morrison said on Aug. 24 the province would gather data on vaccination levels of staff to determine if this was necessary.

“I find it really frustrating to hear that it was … after the school year started that you were still collecting data about vaccination rates from teachers and staff," Green MLA Trish Altass said.

"It's very concerning this was left to the last minute. Why was this not done earlier?"

Carpenter said employees were not at work during the summer months, which made gathering data difficult.

"We swooped in on September 4th because we had a captive audience, if you will, to get the most data on that date that we possibly could and provide it to the CPHO," Carpenter said.

"It may be, in your eyes, too late. But when asked to do so, we complied."

Morrison has said, on average, 90 per cent of school staff and teachers were vaccinated based on the data collected by the Public Schools Branch.

But Carpenter also acknowledged staff were not required to answer questions about their vaccination status if they chose not to. Carpenter said this method of collection was based on legal advice.

Teachers and staff were also not asked to provide documented proof of vaccination.

“What was deemed the most confidential way to do it without sacrificing someone's privacy was simply very similar to what many of us did (for the recent federal election) — a ballot-box type of format,” Carpenter said.

“To put our administrators in that position of asking, that would compromise someone's personal choice."

The survey found that 93 per cent of West Royalty staff said they were fully vaccinated as of Sept. 4.

The province has not released other school-specific data on vaccination rates of staff.

A new requirement that unvaccinated school staff be tested repeatedly each week is set to be put in place on Sept. 24.

Jameson and Carpenter also faced questions about the state of ventilation systems of several schools.

While Morrison said the West Royalty outbreak was not linked to ventilation, the Public Health Agency of Canada has recommended mechanical ventilation be in place in indoor settings that lack natural ventilation. This can reduce the possibility of aerosolized transmission of COVID-19.

Ten of the 56 Englishlanguage schools in P.E.I. lack mechanical ventilation. West Royalty is not one of these schools.

PHAC has recommended the use of portable air filtration devices as a low-cost option in buildings that lack mechanical ventilation.

“Why did we not see an investment in portable air filtration systems, particularly for schools and classrooms that don't have appropriate ventilation systems?” asked Altass.

Carpenter said staff at the Public Schools Branch held a meeting that day to talk about securing some portable filtration devices but did not indicate when these would be in place.

Carpenter also said the “science did change” throughout the pandemic and said experts had initially questioned whether transmission of COVID-19 could occur.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has warned of aerosolized transmission of COVID-19 since November of 2020.

Carpenter said the province would be seeking federal funding to improve the 10 schools without mechanical ventilation but indicated this work could not be completed quickly.

"If the federal government does not provide support for this, is the province, Minister, are you prepared to do this alone?" asked Liberal MLA Gord McNeilly.

"I believe that $5 million, it's already a part of our budget,” Jameson said.

“The design work is already underway. There will be upgrades to our ventilation system in the months and years ahead."

P.E.I.'s Aug. 23 back-toschool plan initially did not include a requirement that students or staff wear masks in public areas. The province reversed this position after concerns were raised by parents, teachers and the P.E.I. Home and School Federation.

Carpenter said after a summer of low COVID case counts in P.E.I., principals and administrators had hoped for a “near-normal” return to school, with many restrictions eased.

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2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-23T07:00:00.0000000Z

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