NL NDP Leader Jim Dinn (St. John’s Centre) wrote to Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Barry Petten yesterday, urging him not to proceed with the proposed changes to school start and dismissal times, arguing that the Minister himself has said the move is being driven by cost-cutting rather than concerns for student safety or improved services.
As a teacher and former President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association, Dinn understands firsthand the impact these changes will have on school communities. He warns that doubling bus runs and rapidly changing school schedules will create significant challenges for parents, many of whom have contacted both Dinn and MHA O’Leary urging government not to proceed. The changes will also place additional pressure on teachers and school staff who are already stretched to the breaking point by ongoing staffing shortages and the government’s failure to address growing pressures in the education system.
“I urge you not to proceed with plans to implement double bus runs and force changes to the daily start and end times of schools. In effect, you would be paying for the promise to eliminate the 1.6 km policy your party made on the backs of our school communities – the children, parents, teachers and staff,” Dinn wrote. “By your own admission, this is a budget-based decision designed to bring huge cost savings to government. Educational justification is secondary. Based on my 36 years of teaching, it has not been my experience that savings will be reinvested into the education system.”
Since being elected, Dinn has consistently called out the government’s failure to properly invest in education, highlighting class size and composition as urgent issues that continue to impact students, teachers, and families across the province. Rather than making the investments needed to support learning and address longstanding challenges in our schools, government has too often chosen cost-cutting measures that create new barriers for school communities already under strain.
“If your government really wishes to help school communities, address long standing issues of class size and composition, school violence, resources for inclusive education, and retention of teachers then stop adding more stressors.”
A full copy of the letter is attached.