Today’s Northumberland Speaks With Education Minister Stephen Lecce

Pete Fisher
4 years ago
• Categories: Local

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School is Back in September, Province Declares

By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
All over Ontario, school boards are hard at work to plan for all the variables to ensure a safe resumption of classes for the 2020-2021 school year.

The provincial government is leaving them a lot of discretion so each can formulate the best plan for the students in that particular area, supporting their efforts by allowing parents more choice in how to proceed along with additional funding and enhanced on-line learning capacity.

In an interview Saturday, Minister of Education Stephen Lecce said that the government’s plan will keep safety for the students and staff – and therefore, at the end of the day, their families – uppermost.

The province’s school boards are now directed to prepare opening plans that cover a variety of contingencies and incorporate enhanced safety protocols. Three models are asked for – a back-to-class model, an at-home online-learning model and a hybrid adaptive model.

Back to class: This would incorporate some form of school-day routine with enhanced public-health protocols.

At home: This possibility must be available, for parents who choose not to send a child back to school as well as in case of a more dangerous turn in the pandemic.

Modified school-day routine: This adapted delivery model limits class size to 15 and minimizes contact among these classes. It can also involve attendance of 15-student cohorts on alternate days or weeks to allow for intensive cleaning between cohorts.

The government’s plan for schools is the result of extensive consultation with the Chief Medical Officer of Health, health experts at the COVID-19 Command Table, medical experts at the Hospital for Sick Children, front-line workers, educational-sector partners, as well as parents and students. If – in spite of all this expertise – parents feel uncomfortable sending a child back to class, the option is there for on-line remote learning.

“The risk posed by COVID-19 cannot be completely eliminated,” Sick Kids president and chief executive officer Dr. Ronald Cohn said in the press release.

“However, there are significant steps that can be taken to mitigate risk and protect the health and well-bring of students, staff and their families.”

Key elements of the government plan include guidance for developing health and safety protocols (including use of personal protective equipment), expectations of an in-class environment, professional-development training for teachers on new protocols and directions, supports for students with special-education needs, proposals on how students and staff can best move around within school, communications guidelines for boards to contact staff and students, guidelines for student transportation systems, expectations for curriculum delivery and assessment across subjects and grades, guidance for working with First Nation students and communities, and regional options for reopening based on the advice of local public-health authorities.

As school boards take this guidance and formulate their plans, Lecce said, the idea is to prepare for all circumstances that could arise. If conventional learning is available, for example, on-line capacity must also be available “should we – God forbid – have to send kids home in the fall.

“My instruction to boards is to be ready for all three scenarios by starting September with an adaptive-conscious model.”

This model incorporates the highest level of safety and brings back the in-class experience so many children have missed for six months.

“We think the cohort model is important for the social and emotional benefit while limiting any risk,” Lecce said.

“The premise is a maximum of 15 kids under the adaptive model, 15 kids in a cohort to stay together, learn together, play together and get to be as normal as possible together, kept as a unit.

“This strengthens the effectiveness of contact tracing and benefits the kids by letting them be kids.”

Lecce reminds the Northumberland-Peterborough South riding that MPP David Piccini has been “an incredible advocate for ensuring we have the right protocols in place.

“The Kawartha Pine Ridge board will receive increased investment this year of $405-million to make sure they will be starting off with resources they need to succeed.”

This amount includes $55-million for special education, he noted.

“If you look at the Peterborough Catholic board, they will receive $182-million, representing an increased investment.”

Province-wide, he continued, over $25-billion has been invested in everything from cleaning supplies (including hand sanitizer) to vital STEM education.

“We continue to listen to the front line, to parents, and part of our plan is to give parents a voice,” he said.

As well, “we negotiated with our union partners $200-million in staffing in areas of priority.”

In a COVID-19 environment, he added, this could potentially mean more than 200,000 custodial staff.

“I think it’s going to require incredible partnerships, as well as the strength, resilience and the spirit of the people of the Northumberland-Peterborough South riding,” Lecce said – “the families of that community, folks who work very hard and want the best for their kids.

“We are grateful to the people of the community for their advice and, on a personal level, to David Piccini who has been such a strong advocate and great defender of the interests of the next generation. His heart is very much aligned with the parents who want to do whatever they can to keep their kids safe.

“We appreciate the feedback from families, educators and students in those communities. This is reflected in our plans to start safely and keep the kids in a positive environment where they are able to be kids.

“In the months after September, this allows for local health officials to work with the ministry to look at day-to-day learning with new protocols,” Lecce said.

“There is a lot at stake. We want to make sure this is a safe restart and a positive one, given that there’s going to be a lot of anxiety. We just want to say thank you to all the educators and staff for their hard work, thank you to the parents out there for their commitment to their children’s education and selfless commitment to their safety.

“And congratulations to the graduating classes – this is one for the history books. These young leaders have really inspired their community and their country, and I can tell them that their province and their premier and, or course, their local member area all very proud of you.”