With a return to the classroom for most of B.C.’s public school students less than a month away, parents on the North Shore remain split about whether they support the move.
North Vancouver mom Michelle Le says the plan for kids to return to the classroom at a time when cases of COVID-19 are increasing makes her nervous. Le, whose elderly parents live with her, says it’s also not fair that the province is making parents wait until the end of August to get detailed information.
“We don’t really know how the students are going to sit in a small classroom. How are they going to screen? How will they handle it if there is a case?” she said. “Without the details, how do we know that it’s safe?”
Le said she’d prefer to have more options – including having her son do some of his schooling online, but that’s not being offered, unless her family signs up for distance education, which wouldn’t be with his regular teacher. Most of those programs are already full with waiting lists, she added.
“The government does not give you a lot of options.”
Earlier this week, Education Minister Rob Fleming announced students’ return to the classroom will be pushed back by two days to Sept. 10 to allow teachers a chance to prepare for the “new normal” under COVID-19 guidelines.
But the basic plan of having most students return to the classroom full time remains unchanged.
School districts must submit their plans for restarting classroom instruction to the ministry by Aug. 17. Parents are to get more details on those plans by Aug. 26.
The province has faced mounting criticism in recent weeks for planning to reopen schools at a time when cases of COVID-19 have been rising in B.C., particularly from teachers, who say physical distancing won’t be possible in all classrooms.
But Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province’s medical health officer, has remained firm in her stance that going back to school is an important goal, especially when nobody knows how long the pandemic will last.
B.C. Premier John Horgan recently called reopening schools “fundamental to re-establishing normalcy within our communities.”
For North Vancouver mom Kim Coleman, who has two sons – one in elementary school and one in high school – the return to classroom routine is a welcome one.
Coleman’s kids – both of whom have special needs - went back to school in June. “Luckily our school is very supportive,” she said.
Coleman said she understands why some parents are worried, but adds for families like hers – where both parents work and her children rely on supports at school – a return to the classroom is crucial.
“ I think a lot of the parents who are very vocally concerned about kids going back and COVID-19 running rampant in schools, those are parents who are not having to think about where would I put my kids that are under 12,” she said.
Many working parents don’t have the option of staying home with their kids, she said, and thousands of kids rely on the school system for social supports.
“And I think the province is having to think about that. You can’t have thousands of kids left home alone.”
Coleman said she understands the return to school carries risks, but added for her the bigger risk of harm would be in not returning to a classroom routine.
For West Vancouver dad Mohamed Hussein, the choice is not an easy one. “We are worried,” said the father of an elementary school-aged boy.
Hussein said his son has health issues that put him at high risk. Currently, “we feel like the measures [being put in place by the province to reduce risk] are not enough,” he said.
Hussein admits it’ll be a difficult decision, because his son wants to go to school and see his friends. Online learning has also been challenging, he said. “We both work full-time and it’s a lot of work.”
Measures like staggered break times, keeping groups smaller, limiting the number of people in a school and in hallways at one time remain the basis of the back-to-school plan. Schools are also considering measures like how to increase ventilation and moving some classes outside.
According to a recent Insights West poll, about half of parents polled favoured kids returning to the classroom and about half opposed it.
Most parents – 71 per cent – worried about their child’s social needs and isolation if they didn’t return to school. About 63 per cent also said the quality of online education was poor compared to classroom learning. Lack of childcare was also a concern for about half of the parents if kids didn’t return to school.
Lisa Upton, principal of Carisbrooke Elementary in North Vancouver, said Wednesday she’s excited about students coming back to school in September. The partial return to school in June went well, said Upton, and was a huge relief after spending mid-March through May in an empty school.
“To be honest, the best part for me was being with students again,” she said.
Keith Rispin, a social studies teacher at West Vancouver Secondary, has more questions about the back-to-school plan.
Regardless of what happens, “We’ll make it work,” said Rispin.
So far, however, little information has been shared with teachers, he said.
Rispin also worries about the possibility of colleagues and students contracting the virus or bringing it back to vulnerable family members.
“If somebody gets sick, then what?” he said. “What risk are we putting them at?”
“I’d like to see a situation where there was a little more vigorous attention paid to masking and separation of students and staff.”
Health Minister Adrian Dix said he supports the plan for students to return to the classroom.
“I think everyone recognizes the need for children to get to school, and everyone recognizes the need for them to be safe,” he said.
Dix said B.C. was the only province to reopen schools in June, when 200,000 students returned to the classroom part time. That experience has helped shape the plan for September, he said.
Henry said this week health officials are keeping close tabs on the situation – including community transmission rates. She said in the U.S., their Center for Disease Control has set a benchmark of having fewer than five cases per 100,000 for a safe reopening of schools. But in many of the counties that did reopen schools, transmission rates were far above that, she said.
“And not surprisingly, that was reflected in what was seen in outbreaks in the schools,” she said.
Dix added that B.C. remains far below that number.
