School divisions mobilize in response to wildfires

A Manitoba First Nation school put out a plea to families to send their children to class more regularly, citing “a decline in student attendance,” 24 hours before wildfires engulfed the community.

“Regular attendance is essential for students to stay engaged, participate in lessons, and develop the skills needed for their future,” Sakastew School administration wrote in a memo to families on Mathias Colomb Cree Nation on Monday.

“We kindly ask for your co-operation in encouraging your child to attend school consistently.”

The next day, the kindergarten-to-Grade 12 school was forced to abandon its efforts to re-engage students for the final month of the school year.

Instead, leaders have been focused on rerouting their fleet of yellow buses to help transport vulnerable evacuees to the local airport, located about 800 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

Schools in Flin Flon, Lynn Lake, Pimicikimak Cree Nation and Sherridon have also been shuttered indefinitely. Other communities remain on standby.

As school leaders in affected communities gas up to support evacuations where possible, colleagues in safety zones are searching for empty classrooms and gymnasiums to provide shelter.

The Manitoba government has called the Winnipeg, Seven Oaks and River East Transcona divisions to find room for displaced Manitobans who arrive in Winnipeg.

Details were still being hammered out midday Thursday, but superintendent Tony Kreml said he was looking for leads to help shelter evacuees and allow them to do laundry, prepare food and access showers at Seven Oaks’ facilities.

“Public education is there for the greater good — that includes in times of tragedy and times of disaster,” said Alan Campbell, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

Campbell said schools are built into community response plans because they have access to fleets equipped with wheelchair lifts and restraints to transport people safely.

The Sinclair family watched school buses filled with priority-evacuees from Mathias Colomb drive past their front window to the airport on Thursday morning, and waited for their turn.

“Everybody’s getting impatient – the whole reserve… Nobody’s giving us information,” father Leo Sinclair said on a video call.

Landline phones went down in the community as infrastructure melted in the extreme heat, but Sinclair remained connected to the internet via StarLink.

He, his wife and their 15-year-old son kept refreshing social media for updates on the emergency response. The trio learned that evacuation plans were getting underway via Facebook the night before.

Fire chief Glenn Dumas announced in a video that priority evacuations would include babies, elders and residents who were homebound due to medical conditions.

Sinclair’s immediate family – none of whom were on the initial list – continued seeking refuge from the smokey skies inside.

“(Wednesday) was dark. There were lots of trees burning and it was difficult to breathe,” Sinclair said, adding the fire is believed to have started when a resident burned garbage at the dump and it spread due to windy and dry conditions.

His son, whose school has been closed since Tuesday in response to the wildfire threat, was occupying himself by scrolling on the internet.

A government spokesperson said the province’s focus is on ensuring the safety and well-being of affected students, staff and their families.

“Consideration for delivery of education in scenarios such as these is the responsibility of the school divisions and/or schools. However, the priority remains health and safety,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The president of the school boards association echoed those comments. At the same time, Campbell noted that climate change is increasingly affecting everything in Manitoba.

He suggested it would be worthwhile to look into what kind of permanent remote learning infrastructure could be created in the future to give student evacuees continuity in their schooling.

“Increasingly, as rural and remote communities are facing evacuation – either because of wildfires or because of flooding – there needs to be a way to respond to that in a proactive, measured, pre-arranged way,” he said.

This story was originally published in The Free Press. It is republished under a Creative Commons license as part of the Local Journalism Initiative.