The Prairie South School Division announced plans to reduce custodial services for the 2020-2021 school year, which has drawn some anger from CUPE.

Jackie Christianson, chair of the CUPE Education Workers’ Steering Committee said "A pandemic is the wrong time to be cutting these services in our schools. Our collective experience is showing us how important sanitation and cleanliness is to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Prairie South is cutting corners on our school's hygiene which will leave students, staff, and the community at risk."

In a statement from the Prairie South School Division, Director of Education Tony Baldwin said he was disappointed in the approach chosen by CUPE.

"As part of our regular staffing process, we have adjusted numbers of staff in all areas to meet the needs of our schools. I was disappointed in the approach chosen by CUPE; I don’t think playing on people’s fears connected to COVID-19 is what we need from any provincial organization."

Currently, there are 30 Head Facility and Facility Operators within Moose Jaw with Prairie South. That number will stay at 30, but the number of part-time workers within that will go from 4 to 11.

All staff moving to part-time will continue to retain their health benefits and all other benefits they are entitled to.

Board Chair of the School Division - Robert Bachmann, explains the reasoning behind the decision.

"[The decision] just puts us in greater alignment with the reality of the funding we've received from the provincial government. When we have a facility that is underutilized, it impacts the budget for the whole facility, one of which is our facility operators. We're just bringing our staffing level into alignment with the funding we've received."

"We had facility operators that were doing split shifts, so they would work a few hours at one school and then move to a second school. All of those split-shifts we've eliminated for a couple of reasons, one of which is a financial one, but also for health and safety reasons its a better choice to not have individuals moving from school to school, but to have them remain in one facility."

The changes will come into effect August 15 and will impact Peacock Collegiate, Central Collegiate, Prince Arthur, William Grayson, and Westmount, as we as the 9th avenue Board Office.