New Brunswick students will return to school this Tuesday, September 8th.
This will be the first time students are in a classroom since schools were shut down province-wide in March.
The government of New Brunswick says that school will be different this year due to COVID-19, but the plan is changing all the time.
With less than a week to go before the first bell, CHMA checks in with some local parents to see how they feel and what they know about back-to-school.
First day jitters more intense than usual
Freelance writer Shoshanna Wingate will be sending her two daughters to start grades three and seven this year.
She says that she and her husband Peter are doing their best to prepare them for a turbulent year.
MC: How are you explaining this to your children? One of them is as young as the third grade.
SW: We’ve been really open with our kids since April, and we talk through what’s going on, what we know, what we don’t know. The thing that we emphasize with our kids the most is that everyone’s doing the best they can. There’s some information that we just can’t know, and nobody can know, and that we need to be… we need to accept that this is change, and that it’s going to be disruptive,. and that nothing is set in stone. Even though school is reopening, there’s a high probability of disruption throughout the school year. So ever since the shutdown, we’ve been preparing them and saying, look, even if you go back to school in the fall, you’ve got to expect that we’re going to have periodic shutdowns. Because I didn’t want them to experience the anxiety of having it happen when they thought everything was okay, and this was all over. I thought it was better to be honest up front and say, Look, don’t expect that this year is going to be like last year, and expect that we’re going to have some shutdowns. We’re going to have to be okay with that. We’ve really not put pressure on them to do schoolwork when the schools closed down, I was really more interested in making sure that they were okay emotionally and that they were happy and not experiencing stress.
Wingate says she is uncertain about outbreak management and that wonders how the procedures will keep students safe.
MC: How confident are you in the plan overall as it stands at the moment?
SW: Well, it would be different if we had a high caseload in New Brunswick. We don’t, we’re in a really lucky place in terms of our really minimal case numbers. So, that gives me ease of mind for sure. In terms of the plan, ever since things shut down and I started really paying attention to the virus and tracking what’s happening in other places and how people are responding to it, I’ve always sort of felt that when school started again, we would have to expect periodic shutdowns. I never expected my kids to go back to school in September, and it to be sort of a continuous school year. I always expected that cases would pop up in different communities and that schools would be shut down temporarily. What I’m concerned about is that they’re not going to shut down the schools, and may just shut down individual classes if cases pop up. If a few cases pop up, say in one class in one school, and they only send those kids home, I am concerned about whether or not the rest of the school really is safe from exposure, and also how it’s going to affect those kids to be at home while everybody else is in school learning. I’m not really sure how that’s gonna work.
MC: In the event of shut down, a lot of the government plans have articulated that there’s going to be more of a focus on online education. Do you have any thoughts about online education?
SW: Yes, I do. Well, you know, we’re fortunate in that we’re able to provide the technology for our kids if they need to work at home. However, there are two adults in this house and we both work. My husband’s office has been shuttered probably for the year. So we’re both working from home. I’m used to working at home, but I’m used to working at home by myself. Now I have three other people in the house 24/7. It’s really hard to concentrate. If the kids are going to be working from home, there has to be a parent on hand to make sure to help facilitate that. So we just never stopped working. There’s no rest. It’s like one person is with the kids while the other one’s working, and then we switch. We’re tag teaming all the time, and there’s no downtime. There’s no rest. There’s no there’s no uninterrupted work time really even.
Concerns for Kindergartners and class sizes
Mount A associate professor of drawing and painting Chris Down echoes Wingate’s concerns about online education.
He and his partner Paula Cowen have two school-aged children, the youngest of whom is starting kindergarten.
CD: I have no idea what that would look like, for kindergarten students. I mean, our student that’s in grade five is reasonably tech savvy. But as far as sitting in front of a computer for five hours a day, that’s not likely to happen, even for the older one. Kindergarten, I’m not sure what that would look like. I certainly don’t envy kindergarten teachers in that position. I think that online learning, working from home, doing all that kind of stuff, it’s all okay. But it’s definitely not a real solution. It’s really just a pretty weak bandaid.
Down says that due to the uncertainty surrounding coronavirus, he is expecting more last-minute changes to occur.
CD: Based on my own experience getting ready for my own classes at Mount Allison, you prepare for a lot of different things, and you’re sort of waiting to see what the actual situation is. So I get the sense that that’s sort of what’s going on.
Aside from the possibility of online learning, Down is concerned about his children’s class sizes.
CD: We don’t really have a sense of what the classrooms look like. I know that apparently there’s 25 people or students in the class at Marshview. So I can’t imagine that that’s going to be very spaced out. At the end of this, that’s gonna make distancing pretty difficult. I know that they have plans to be outside as much as possible. So that’s sort of like a way of mitigating that. Some of that has to do with just class sizes in general, leaving aside the pandemic. I think that the education system has been neglected pretty badly in this province for quite a while. I think that now that there’s this extra strain put on it and we’re beginning to feel the big cracks in it.
He has heard from Salem and Marshview principals, but most of the information has come from their children’s teachers.
COVID protocols are unclear and possibly inaccessible
Another parent, Robin Walker, is concerned about the lack of information available about testing protocols should a child fall ill.
She says that some families may not be able to access COVID testing as easily as others.
RW: If they have even one symptom, they’re recommended to call 811. But the wait to get to talk to a nurse on 811 is now between 24 and 48 hours. So it sounds like you’re waiting one to two days to even talk to a nurse. So if your kid wakes up with a runny nose, or your kid wakes up with a low grade fever, or your kid wakes up with any one of the symptoms, then you can’t send them to school. Then you have to wait one to two days to talk to a nurse to get a test, and then we have to go to Moncton to the Colosseum to get your kid tested. So it just seems like that’s huge. Right? I guess that feels like a pretty big barrier. It feels like a huge weight on families. It’s an accessibility thing. We have a car of course we can go but I’m worried that families, other families that may not have a vehicle or may not have access to just pick up and take their kids to Moncton for the day to get a test. It’s going to be a challenge.
Walker is the international affairs coordinator with Mount Allison, and says that Public Health does not handle all matters related to COVID-19 if a positive case is identified.
There was much involvement necessary from the university required when isolation and testing occurred on campus.
RW: They’ve put a lot on the university, actually, so we were carrying a lot of weight. So even though Public Health says they take over, they’re actually not taking over. So I feel like I would like to be more reassured that Public Health and the education system are integrated well, and I just don’t think they’re actually integrated as well as they should be at this point.
She is concerned that schools may feel more pressure than anticipated in the event of an outbreak.
Her and her partner Bucky Buckler have three sons, one in preschool, one in grade three, and the oldest in grade six.
The final press conference before the start of school took place yesterday with Deputy Ministers of Education and Early Childhood Development, George Daley and Marcel Lavoie.
Deputy Minister Daley had the following to say about back-to-school anxiety.
GD: We will see a gradual and staggered return of our students into each building to allow staff more one and one time with each child. We will help them lower our anxiety for the first day, along with ensuring that they are adequately informed and supported in the understanding of the new safety protocols that will be part of their everyday school life. We also know that for some school staff, they are also experiencing some general concern and anxiety. I want them all to know that we have worked closely with Public Health and WorkSafeNB over recent months and that we are committed to continuing to do so to offer as safe of a school environment as we can.
School operation plans were released to the public yesterday.
More information about the back-to-school plan can be found on the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development website or here.
By Meg Cunningham
