1. As you may know, the Ministry of Education has asked us to consider, and plan for, three different scenarios for back-to-school this fall.
These scenarios are dependent upon the public health situation at the time, and include:
1. Normal school day routine with enhanced public health protocols – Students going to school every day, in classes that reflect standard class size regulations.
2. A Modified school day routine – Based on public health advice, an adapted model designed to allow for physical distancing and cohorts of students. Under this model, school boards are asked to maintain a limit of 15 students in a typical classroom at one time. This model requires alternate day or alternate week in-class delivery to a segment of the class at one time.
3. At home learning – Should the school closure be extended, or some parents choose not to send their child back to school, school boards are asked to prepare to offer remote education.
The government, in conjunction with public health, will announce which of these scenarios will be in place for September. We expect that decision to take place in early August.
We also want to be clear in acknowledging that we are very mindful of the significant impact of school closures on our students and families. It is a hardship, and it remains our greatest hope that we can resume the in-person delivery of education as soon as possible – to the significant benefit of not just our students, but our staff and the families we serve.
Please be assured that we will strive to provide normal school operations as soon as safely possible for our students and staff.
As we await direction from the Ministry of Education, we continue to plan for all possible scenarios. To inform our planning, we asked for feedback from families and staff using an online tool called Thoughtexchange. Over 4,500 people participated in the Thoughtexchange, sharing over 6,000 ideas, and applying nearly 100,000 ratings of ideas related to school re-opening.
We invite you to read a summary report on the Thoughtexchange data, by clicking here.
We asked parents questions related to their level of comfort with having their child return to school, as well as preferences for a modified school day, should that be the government’s direction.
Approximately 70% of participants indicated that they would be ready for their child to participate in-class instruction, if available. With respect to the modified day preferences, nearly forty percent of respondents preferred an every other day in-school model, while 32 per cent preferred a week at a time, and 29 per cent preferred two days at a time in school followed by two days at home.
We value the feedback we have received, and based on it, for our modified day planning we are moving forward with an every other day in class model. As we indicated from the outset, our planning remains contingent on discussions with, and feedback from, our local public health partners and the Ministry of Education.
The every-other-day model has several benefits:
· Monday, Wednesday (Friday) or Tuesday, Thursday (Friday) is a familiar model for families – used previously by our schools for Kindergarten;
· Students will receive in-person instruction every other day from teachers – this means shorter stretches of time will be spent on distance learning.
· Students will be grouped into A or B cohorts, with siblings in the same cohort and with a view to, as much as possible, group siblings in different schools (e.g. elementary and secondary) so they attend school on the same days, and are home on the same days.
If an adapted model is the provincial direction, we recognize that families will want as much notice as possible about which cohort they are in – M,W(F) or T,Th,(F). We will communicate this information to families in August after the Ministry announces for certain how schools will open for learning. If the Ministry announces full-time, in-school learning, or full-time distance learning, we will be ready to proceed with these scenarios as well.
Based on our Thoughtexchange data, we have also identified the following priorities for all of our school re-opening scenarios:
· Frequent and thorough cleaning and sanitization. Every school day, high touch surfaces will be continuously disinfected. At the end of each school day, an afternoon shift of custodial workers will come in to deep clean schools to ensure a safe environment for students the next day.
· Emphasis on hand washing. Students will be reminded to wash their hands frequently and avoid touching their face. Hand washing and sanitization stations will be placed throughout schools where needed.
· Protocols in the event of illness. We will reinforce that both students and staff who are ill must stay home. If a student or staff member becomes ill while at school, or comes to school ill, they will be isolated until they can be taken home. We will also develop communication protocols in the event of students, staff or family members testing positive for COVID.
· Physical distancing. Our planning includes a number of strategies to avoid close contact and congregations of students and staff, such as: specific entry and exit doors for cohorts of students, directional signage, well-spaced desks and workstations, limits on the number of people in washrooms, and staggered times for breaks and other transition times in the school day.
· Supports for students. We recognize that the events of the last few months will have lasting impacts on everyone’s social, emotional, physical and academic wellbeing. We are planning ways to continue to support students and staff as we transition back to in-person schooling.
While we have much more planning to do, and are still in discussion with our local public health partners and the Ministry of Education, we wanted to share with everyone the thoughtful input we have received, which is an essential component of this process.
We hope for brighter days ahead where our students and staff can continue their educational journey together.
Please be safe and stay well
Author: Pete Fisher
Has been a photojournalist for over 30-years and have been honoured to win numerous awards for photography and writing over the years. Best selling author for the book Highway of Heroes - True Patriot Love
