New COVID-19 rules for schools in the red level of pandemic recovery are putting more pressure on teachers and staff.
They require teachers and staff showing just one symptom of COVID-19, to stay at home.
President of the New Brunswick Teachers’ Association, Rick Cuming, says this is creating an additional strain on the system.
“This is a very real burden on the rest of the school staff who are trying to fill in for these unfilled days,” Cuming says.
Cuming says district staff have been deployed in some cases to go to the schools, “But this extra strain on teachers and administrators will take a toll. If there is insufficient staff, then the schools will have to be closed to operational reasons.”
He says in Zone 3 (Frederiction region), five schools were forced to close for two weeks because of a shortage of staff. Many of the teachers and staff live in Zone 4 (Edmundston region), which is currently under lockdown.
“We are working with the government and districts, to try and determine what it is, on a case by case basis, that is going to make it so a school cannot function,” Cuming says.
