DPAC Health & Safety Working Group Response to Joint Release by local chapters of IUOE, VSTA, VEAES, CUPE Locals 15 and 407, RE: Staffing Levels at VSB Schools
/Summary Statement
The Vancouver DPAC Health & Safety Working Group (HSWG) shares the concerns expressed in the unions’ joint press release[1] that resource teachers are regularly being pulled from their duties to fill in for absent teachers and about the dramatic reduction in student support worker ratios this year. Resource teachers and support workers are vital to the healthy and safe functioning of every school, and therefore to the health and safety of all children and school staff. We call on the VSB to immediately rectify these issues and develop a plan to address shortages over the long term.
Full Statement
Vancouver District Parents Advisory Council (DPAC) Health & Safety Working Group is expressing our solidarity with the unions and the DPAC Inclusive Education Working Group as they advocate for staffing levels to be brought back into line with the needs in schools. The staff shortages, which are on record as having been significant prior to the outbreak of SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19), are exacerbated further now by the unmitigated spread of COVID and many secondary illnesses, including but not limited to invasive bacterium, RSV, and influenza. Measles are being reported as being on the rise as well, and Canadian children are currently woefully under-vaccinated. [2]
The joint press release and Inclusive Education Working Group letter both highlighted that teachers have reported escalating incidents of violence in their classrooms, which means that children and youth are both witnessing and experiencing the same trauma.
If staff are experiencing poor and unsafe working conditions, then it follows that all our children are in those same conditions, as unprotected minors.
We look to both the VSB and the Province, including but not limited to the Ministry of Education and Childcare, to create safer situations for both workers and students going forward by looking to the root causes of the shortages, including but not exclusively due to budget cuts and austerity measures that are unrelenting, illnesses and the unmitigated spread of diseases in our buildings causing stress, injury and absences, and overall job dissatisfaction.
We have emails dating back several years on staff shortage. While the issue was evident prior to 2019, the trend is ever-worsening, with the increased frequency and duration of illnesses in our school communities. Problems we are seeing more of in recent years:
● Reduced in-class instruction time as staff and students are each missing more classes
● Increased stress and learning loss as curriculum is squeezed into fewer available
productive hours
● High Levels of Fatigue as staff try to push through and children attend while ill when
caregivers run out of available sick days and/or economic capacity to miss work Recommendations by DPAC HSWG
● Employ Sufficient Staff – Increase funding to the school-levels of VSB such that enough staff can be hired to fill roles
● Return Janitorial Staffing to Previous Levels – To ensure buildings are clean and free of pollutants
● Mitigate the Spread of Diseases – In addition to cleaning surfaces, recognize that airborne illnesses are spread in the air and can remain in the air after people have left a room, sometimes for hours, similar to cigarette smoke. We must apply the precautionary principle.
● Monitor Indoor Air Quality – Transparently, in all school buildings, constantly throughout all hours of occupancy and utilize tools which allow us to quickly ventilate and consistently clean indoor air.
● Ensure that students with IEPs and physical disabilities are not having their staff poached to cover the absences of classroom teachers. – Students who require direct attention must have staff dedicated to their care, and unavailable to be used for other purposes within a school.
● Collect and share data about what happens in schools in an open, transparent and unaltered way that includes absences, leaves, and failures to fill. – This will ensure parents and caregivers and those related to people working in schools will understand the needs of public systems as the province heads into an election.
● Allow and enable staff and students to stay home when ill, and send staff home when they are unwell. – The culture of working while sick is one that causes domino-effect spread of contagious diseases further than they might otherwise.
Why do we address the Premier of British Columbia and the
Minister of Education and Childcare?
In addition to decades of austerity through successive governments and leaders, the Province has added to the strain put on districts. For example, Provincial legislation regarding sick leave eligibility for TOC’s and casuals contributed to significant additional costs which were unfunded by the Ministry. The result of this legislation in the context of our current climate is tens of millions of dollars in costs to the board. Legislation from government must be paired with
sufficient support, to enable districts to meet newly legislated mandates and funding to mitigate the number of sick days occurring.
The VSB cannot be expected to manage this on their own, and certainly individual schools cannot do so either. While there are many things VSB can do to improve conditions for staff/students, the Province must invest in the future of our society, supportive of school districts.
Vancouver DPAC’s Health & Safety Working Group holds the expectation that the Vancouver School Board, the Minister of Education and Childcare, the Province and the Premier of British Columbia, will all work together to address workers’ concerns and that the lives of students, and those who live and work with them, will be your top priority.
Thank you, DPAC HSWG
More information & Footnotes:
Joint letter/press release from VSB teacher and staff unions
Measles Is Coming Back. We’re Not Prepared (“...measles immunity in Canada is below
the 95 per cent immunity threshold required to sustain measles elimination.”)
For further information or comment, please contact Vancouver DPAC Health & Safety at hswg@vancouverdpac.org. Further information on our organization can be found at www.vancouverdpac.org and linktr.ee/cleanairbcschools
