For students across the province, the 2020-21 school year got underway this morning. Coinciding with the resumption of classes, which had been disrupted in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the provincial government announced an additional $51 million in funding for school divisions, all of which has already been approved.

The money announced is intended for emergent, one-time expenses associated with the return to school. Of the $51 million, $41 million comes from provincial funding, while the remaining $10 million is from school division savings.

There were 46 applications from school divisions across the province, but details as to which school divisions had applied for funding was not released. There is no word at this time if any of the new money will be coming to the South East Cornerstone Public School Division or the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division.

In all, there is $19.1 million for sanitization efforts, including 191 more staff across the province; $132 million for supports for immunocompromised students, which also includes the hiring of 150 more teachers and staff; $9.5 million to upgrade distance learning capacity, which includes 102 teachers and staff; $6.0 million for equipment and furniture and $4.0 million for technology upgrades.

“In order to ensure our schools are as safe as possible for students and staff, $80 million has been committed for the start of the school year,” stated Minister of Education Gord Wyant. “As a result of our combined funding increases, more than 600 new teachers and staff will be funded this school year.”

It was also announced there will be some changes to the operating funding for school divisions. Normally, the funding it confirmed when the enrollment numbers of the school year are submitted on September 30th. This year, the Ministry of Education is delaying any changes to the distribution of the grants until January 29th. The move is said to give some stability to the school divisions regardless of what the enrollments are this fall.

The provincial government still has $64 million in the COVID contingency fund for education. The next planned intake for funding applications is December 1.