North Queens Community School in Caledonia is one of the recipients of the new School Advisory Council Innovation Fund. (NQCS Facebook page)

North Queens Community School in Caledonia is one of 26 schools across Nova Scotia awarded funding through the new School Advisory Council Innovation Fund.

The fund is sponsored by the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. It provides grants of up to $10,000 to test an idea that could be expanded to other schools. The province announced the program in December to encourage new and innovative projects to support student achievement and well-being.

“I am so impressed with the creativity and commitment to bettering schools that SACs showed in their applications to the innovation fund,” said Becky Druhan, minister of education and early childhood development.

“The councils really demonstrated their deep understanding of their school communities and the things that get students engaged in their learning experience.”

The North Queens Community School’s project is a W’koum (wigwam). Led by a community elder, students will sustainably collect materials to build the structure. 

The Primary to Grade 12 school plans a community celebration when the W’koum is finished and it will be incorporated into the school’s outdoor learning environment.

School advisory councils are volunteer-driven and usually include parents and guardians, school staff, students and other community members.

The province received 128 applications for funding. More than $250,000 was awarded to recipients.

Projects will be featured at the first provincewide SAC conference in September.

Some of the other successful projects include: hydroponics to expand school gardens; a model apartment for students with special needs; and a “right to bike” program, which supplies students in grades 3, 4 and 5 with larger bicycles and safety equipment.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

A group of Little Hearts Preschool children walk through Liverpool. Photo Katelyn Leslie

A local unlicensed daycare operator is fighting to stay open.

Since the provincial government introduced the pre-primary program to Nova Scotia back in 2017 parents have flocked to the no-cost program.

Katelyn Leslie, owner of Little Hearts preschool in Liverpool says that leaves operators of unlicensed pre-schools out in the cold.

“The choices that I’m facing now are [sic] losing my business to someone else. Because what they are doing and what they’ve told me, is that they want to make the early childhood field more into a field like public education and public health,” said Leslie.

Nova Scotia was the second province to sign on to the $605 million Canada Wide Child Care Agreement.

Initially, for-profit daycare centres were told they would have to move to a non-profit model to be eligible to receive funding.

But that changed after discussions between operators and government officials opened the door for licensed operators to participate in the program.

However, none of that helps an unlicensed operator like Leslie.

She wants to work within the system and has been trying to complete the process to become a licensed operator since 2020.

Leslie says numerous e-mails and phone calls to her government contact went unreturned for weeks.

When she did hear back, the news wasn’t good.

“So, when she finally got back to me, the news was, I could not get licensed on my own. I would have to merge with a completely different company that was going to be under this umbrella like the YMCA or something like that,” said Leslie. “So, I would no longer be the owner of my business or anything like that. It wouldn’t be mine.”

Little Hearts Preschool sign on display. Photo Katelyn Leslie

Leslie says she built the business up on her own with the help of family and friends and doesn’t want to just sign it over.

She wants parents to have an alternative to the play-based learning model used in the pre-primary program.

Leslie provides more structured class time and takes children on field trips around the community.

She’s asking people to write letters to Premier Tim Houston and the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in support of her work.

“There is a need here in this community and I’ve been trying to fill it but with these new rules I can’t expand at all so I can’t take any more children. So, I’m having to turn them away and then there’s nowhere else for them to go,” said Leslie.

When approached for comment on this story a spokesperson from the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development issued the following statement:

“We recognize and value the important role child care operators play in caring for our children. Government signed Nova Scotia’s $605-million Canada Wide Child Care Agreement with the Federal Government last July and a temporary pause was placed on issuing new licences to reflect the terms of this transformative Agreement. We want all operators to succeed and be part of the 5-year journey we are on to transform child care. We have been in touch with this operator and are eager to speak with all unlicensed operators and encourage them to reach out for information on the benefits of becoming licensed and the paths available.”

The spokesperson says to expect more announcements in the coming months about changes to preschool programs.

For now, Leslie is just looking for more certainty.

“It’s really hard to know what’s going on because they tell you different things all the time,” said Leslie. “That’s why I’m not really fully sure of everything.”

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

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Dr. Robert Strang. Photo Communications Nova Scotia

The province’s top doctor says staff and students are welcome to share their COVID status, but schools won’t aid in getting the word out.

Dr. Robert Strang says the omicron variant is so widespread that there is little value in providing contract tracing.

“The risks of relying on being notified and then the false assumption that if you’re not notified, you’re somehow not at risk just don’t work anymore with the widespread of omicron,” said Strang.

While he recognizes the change is a significant psychological shift that will cause anxiety for some staff and parents, Strang says previous attempts at contact tracing have shown they may cause more harm than good.

“What we learned when we were doing this close contact tracing in November and December, particularly, was that doing that close contact tracing and then the subsequent isolation of people who were identified classroom contacts was incredibly disruptive to our school system and to families. So, we’re not going to be isolating people anymore.”

During Wednesday’s COVID briefing, Strang was asked why school officials have been told they are not permitted to share COVID cases.

Strang says it’s up to individual parents and teachers if they want to share their own personal information and schools would not distribute that information to protect the privacy of the people involved.

But he insisted reports of school officials being told not to share information is untrue.

“In fact, that is misinformation that’s been put out there by various groups that there’s somehow a ban or a gag order. That’s not true,” said Strang. “However, the school system and individual teachers need to be aware that there’s legislation that governs how somebody else’s personal health information is actually disclosed.”

Strang was provided with a copy of a letter issued to parents by a principal in which the principal says they have been specifically told they are not permitted to share COVID information with the school community.

Strang responded that is not the message that has come out of discussions he has had with education officials over the past few days.

“That has been clarified and that is not actually the appropriate phrasing and language that has been most recently shared with school administration.”

How the message has been clarified was not identified as the update was cut off abruptly following Dr. Strang’s response.

A series of follow up correspondence with the South Shore Regional Centre for Education, the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development and the Department of Health and Wellness all confirm the information provided by the principal was accurate.

The official policy from the education department echoes earlier comments from Dr. Strang that teachers and parents are free to share their own personal COVID information if they choose, but school administration will not make that information public.

The latest COVID numbers from public health show three more Nova Scotians have died, 11 people have been admitted to hospital and five have been discharged.

Strang says while public health is moving away from rigorous contact tracing, how people prevent the spread of COVID-19 remains the same.“The message for everybody is get vaccinated, follow all the personal protective measures, especially and if you’re sick with new cold and flu-like symptoms stay home,” said Strang. “That message doesn’t change just because somebody has been a close contact.”

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.