Great to see funding of #Oakville HS and #Milton PS. Now we need the MOE to update their benchmarks so the building process is efficient. Waiting 6 months for ATP for Milton #11! Can't start build without it. Taxpayers deserve appropriate school facilities for kids. #onted
Delays increase building costs. Delays increase # portables and transportation costs. Delays can split neighbourhoods and even families into various holding schools.
ATP (Approval to Proceed) roadblocks happen for every single project in our Board and our estimates are accurate every single time. We have to meet, clarify, beg and shout every single time. The are costly consequences to the delays every single time.
The issue is outdated benchmarks(Provincial cost estimates). Costs to build are well beyond Provincial numbers. We submit 3rd party estimates. We "value engineer" to keep costs as low as possible, and still we wait & wait & the poor students end up stacked and shuffled around.
It is imperative that Minister @Sflecce act on this or we will be in the same roadblock for these two new schools in #Oakville and #Milton.
We need the Milton #11 ATP now!
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🧵#Onted#onpoli 1/5
FACT:
On Monday morning, the media reported UNOFFICIALLY that students were going back on the 17th.
FACT:
Parents immediately started contacting Trustees and Board staff for information.
2/5 FACT:
School boards can only move forward to plan (allocate resources, etc.) when there is an OFFICIAL announcement & directives from the Ministry of Education. Boards don't have staff time to make plans for 10s of thousands of students based on hear-say.
3/5 FACT:
The OFFICIAL communication from the Ministry of Education about the 17th did not happen until WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON!
By you not getting a vaccination, you are much much more likely to be symptomatic when you get COVID which makes you a bigger spreader through coughing, etc., and you are vastly more likely to need to be hospitalized if you get sick.
2/8
I care about you and I also care about the people you interact with whose immune system may not have responded adequately enough to the vaccine (Immuno-suppressed and/or elderly).
3/8
What is the purpose of publishing COVID case numbers for publicly funded schools & private childcare centres but not private schools? Private schools are embedded in our neighbourhoods. The community has the right to know. #flyingundertheradar#onted
I am aware of a private school in Halton that has had 3 cases. It has not been posted regionally or provincially. There may be more, but we do not know. #onted
The silence of private school stats conveys a false impression that publicly funded schools get the virus and private schools don't; The impression that public systems are riddled with disease & private schools are above it. #onted
@HaltonDSB starts its first optional day today for elementary students as part of a staggered start. The regular excitement and anxiety of the first day of school will be heightened. Compassion, understanding & empathy will help us all navigate it successfully.
As we enter the school year, I want to thank all of the @HaltonDSB staff that have put a ton of hard work into planning for reopening over the past 5 months. Not only were whole new protocols and timetables built and implemented, but...
1 new virtual HS and 3 new ESs were staffed and Ss enrolled in mere weeks! Teachers & Ed workers had to be flexible with shifting assignments. Custodians and facilities staff adjusted and disinfected environments. Office & clerical staff jumped into their roles with new...