Grant Park High School and Tec Voc High School are losing after school access to their main gyms due to WSD deciding that starting on Monday they will be used as COVID testing sites for various WSD staff members who have refused to get vaccinated and instead will need to be covid tested 3 times a week. This means all athletics and after school clubs that use the gym will be booted out indefinitely for the “foreseeable future” whatever WSD decides that to be, and of course no home games can proceed. This is vastly unfair and puts health and safety, student, family member and staff convenience, student mental health, and the best interest of the school community at risk when it doesn’t have to. Additionally, neither staff nor students of the school were consulted in making this decision and were given incredibly brief notice to try and work something out, searching for alternatives has been left to the schools. But we do not want a less convenient alternative, we just want our gym back. First and foremost Grant Park High School and Tec Voc High School are schools, schools that serve their students and staff members. We refuse to let that be at risk.
Here’s the link to the petition that’s been started: https://forms.gle/Wf7NrqTvHBt7eiHj8
Winnipeg School Division has designated two Winnipeg High Schools as Covid test sites for WSD staff that will not disclose their vaccination status or are unvaccinated. Three tests are to be done per employee per week. One must be monitored by a health official. The monitored tests will occur at these schools.
Grant Park High School and Tec Voc High School are the two designated schools.
They are using the gyms in order to administer tests. Testing is Monday-Friday, after regular school hours, from 4:30-9:30 pm.
All school staff and students from each of the high schools must vacate during this time.
The division has hired security to monitor the two schools. That don’t come cheap.
The WSD is paying for all testing for these individuals which is in the range of nearly 2000 people. The cost, if testing continues until the end of the school year, is in excess of 1.5 million dollars. That’s a whole lot of teachers and support staff that could be hired. Especially since the division cut many positions last year. Or a lot of books and resources to be bought for schools to support students.
This also means that students who have, after 2 years been given the opportunity to play a semblance of a sport, are no longer able to access the main and most modern gym area in the schools and will be displaced elsewhere.
It is great to see tax dollars being used in this manner and disregard for students (and staff) at these two high schools. /s
Other divisions are not doing this. Why is the WSD?
Other school divisions in the city are mandating masks, but Winnipeg School Division refuses and instead wrote to the province asking them to do it. It's fully within the Winnipeg School Division's power to do it themselves!
If this annoys you, too, there's an email campaign directed at Winnipeg School Division that makes it really easy to contact trustees and other WSD officials. There's an email template at this link that you can just sign if you like the pre-written email text as is, or you can edit it to fit your particular situation: https://act.newmode.net/action/parents-public-education-manitoba/demand-winnipeg-school-division-mandate-key-covid-19-safety
Tell the Winnipeg School Division that you want mandatory masks and other COVID-19 safety measures in Winnipeg schools this September 2021!
Fill their inboxes using this simple email template to sign or write your own letter: https://act.newmode.net/action/parents-public-education-manitoba/demand-winnipeg-school-division-mandate-key-covid-19-safety
The Winnipeg School Division announced Friday it will be closing playgrounds except during the school day for the duration of the code-red period when the majority of students are learning from home.
A statement acknowledges outdoor play is one of the few pleasures families have at this time, but indicated people have been congregating on the grounds at all hours, which defeats the purpose of the distance-learning measures in place to disrupt the potential for COVID-19 to spread.
Winnipeg School Division Drivers Threaten to Strike
The last I heard/saw was that the union that represents bus drivers stated that parents might not be able to rely on bus transportation in September due to a potential strike. They have been negotiating since March, and gave a new deadline of September 8th, and on Selkirk Avenue at one of the Winnipeg School Division Bus Depot’s, they have a trailer with a “Strike Headquarters” banner on it, which makes me believe that the negotiations over the contract has not been resolved yet... Maybe this is what the back to school news release/speech will be about today.
But has anyone heard anything different? Have the negotiations been resolved? What will happen if they are on strike on the first few days of school?
All I can think of right now is “what a 💩 show....!”
Tell the Winnipeg School Division that you want mandatory masks and other COVID-19 safety measures in Winnipeg schools this September 2021!
Fill their inboxes using this simple email template to sign or write your own letter: https://act.newmode.net/action/parents-public-education-manitoba/demand-winnipeg-school-division-mandate-key-covid-19-safety
