PICTOU, N.S. — Things are getting messy at West Pictou Consolidated School.
Slippery floors and inconsistent snow removal are behind a recent request to have janitorial work shifts changed to begin at 8 a.m. rather than 10 a.m.
“With no janitorial staff on site prior to 10 a.m. each day, some health and safety issues have arisen between 8 and 10 a.m.,” reads a letter written by the West Pictou Consolidated School Advisory Council to the Chignecto Central Regional Centre for Education.
The school advisory committee (SAC) is made up of local community members, usually teachers, parents, community members who act as a community liaison with the regional centres for education, in this case, CCRCE.
The letter, sent on Jan. 20,2020, raised a concern that the SAC has with water being tracked through school hallways requiring immediate attention to prevent students from slipping on their walk to and from class.
Jan. 20, is not the first time that messy floors in the morning was flagged as a concern by the advisory council.
In letter from the CCRCE responding to the same issue in November 2018, the CCRCE acknowledged the problem and offered at the time to have more mats delivered and to arrange for custodians to come in earlier to help clear snow from the entrances.
But in their most recent letter the West Pictou advisory council says that morning snow removal has been “inconsistent” and that the mats, “are not greatly alleviating the issue of water tracking throughout the school.”
Picking up the slack are principals, educational assistants, teachers and other administrative staff, something that the advisory council at West Pictou says is taking away time that could be spent on classroom preparation.
Reduced custodial hours have not only affected West Pictou Consolidated.
In their 2019 response to the West Pictou Consolidated SAC, the CCRCE explained that later start times for janitors were the result of 2012 provincial funding cuts to education. These cuts also impacted janitorial services.
“To accommodate these reductions, some difficult decisions were made,” wrote Chris Zwicker, Acting Director of Operations for the CCRCE, explaining why custodial hours had been reduced and why the morning hours were taken away.
“In several sites, when the reductions were being considered, daytime hours were removed as these are shown to be the least efficient hours that make up the school custodial staffing.”
There are 526 students from grade primary to grade 8 attending West Pictou Consolidated.
The solution being put forward by the council in 2020 is for a change in janitorial hours, not for extra hours.
“When a concern is raised, our operations staff work together with our school administration to find a potential solution,” said Jennifer Rodgers, communications coordinator with the CCRCE.
