Red Bay students return to class Monday after weeks of protest

Parents in Red Bay sent their children to school on Monday for the first time since the school year began, but warned the students may not stay in class if their demands aren't met.

The eight students returned to Basque Memorial School to allow the Newfoundland and Labrador English School Board to complete an assessment of staffing levels, Red Bay parent Vicki Hancock told Labrador Morning.

However, Hancock said if the parents don't get what they want — another staff member at the school — the children will be home again after the three-day assessment ends.

"When Thursday comes and there's nothing put in place, we're not sending our kids back in until there's something put in place for an extra person to be in the building," Hancock said.

"We definitely want an extra presence in the building. We've expressed this to the school board over and over and over."

The students' parents have kept them out since the school year began, as a protest over job cuts. The school's staffing was reduced from 1.5 positions down to one for the start of the 2018-19 school year.

Hope, after anger

The protesting parents are hopeful they will eventually be allotted the extra staffer they say is necessary for the school with eight students ranging from kindergarten to Grade 8.

That hope comes after anger last week, when Hancock says the school's principal, who is also its only teacher, and a school board representative went into the school without notifying parents.

On Wednesday, the official and principal went through the woods and around the back of the school to enter the building, she said, without the protesting parents out front being notified. The protestors could tell someone was in the school, she said, but didn't know who or for how long.

Later in the evening the police were called by the official and principal, who said they wouldn't leave the school until cops arrived, Hancock said.

"We're there fighting for the kids. There was no need to be afraid of us," Hancock said.

"Had they come to us in the beginning and asked across the line to go in and check everything out, we would have been fine with it. But it was deceitful and disrespectful what they did do."

'A big relief'

That school visit by officials does appear to have brought the parents closer to getting their demands met.

Hancock said the parents in the community received a letter from the NLESD on Friday indicating that the files collected by the official and principal indicated that another staffer was needed in the building.

"It has been determined that there is no requirement for an additional allocation of teaching staff, as the allocation is comparable to schools of similar size and grade configuration," reads the letter from Christina White, the district's assistant director of education for Labrador.

However, the NLESD had determined that there is "an emerging need for some student assistant hours," White wrote, but an assessment with students in class was required to make a final decision on that.

"Everybody in the community knew that there was no way one person can go in that building and look after a four-year-old, right up to a Grade 8 student. It was impossible," Hancock said.

"It was a big relief to find out they finally realized that there was somebody else needed."

The three-day assessment now underway is meant to determine what kind of staffer that should be, and how many hours they will spend in the building, Hancock said.

Two guidance counsellors and a school board program specialist will be at the school Monday, according to a letter received by Hancock and the other parents on Friday.

The parents believe that a full-day aide is required to ensure the safety of the students, and that the assessment will make the need for that staffer clear. If they are allotted less than that, the parents will have to talk to see if that's enough, she said.

"Hopefully they'll give us enough to send our kids back."

With files from Labrador Morning

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