Back to School during the pandemic ...a discussion thread

[bababear_50]

And I don't see how this can happen. The idea is not to cross contaminate, so having any kind of "floater" strikes me as counter to the entire gist of the thing.

The Ontario Principal's Association recently published a very detailed response to the government, Although the tone started supportive, they raised a bunch of good points; the real eye opener for me was their questioning about what we do about substitutes? We all know more will be required; DW usually works through everything unless she literally can't get up out of bed in the morning. But now she also has to call in for a sniffle. But Subs can't be floating from school to school. The principals are asking that substitute teachers be assigned to a single school for safety. That makes a lot of sense for reducing the spread, but will it happen?

And DW's school went to double nutrition break a couple of years ago. Takes a bit of adjustment, but it works pretty well. I haven't heard any of her crowd opining on whether it has improved student attention/performance or not. It works really well for her personally as she is one of those people who thrives on a few really small meals over 3 large ones.

So are you saying school staff will not be getting any lunch time or breaks?

Mel

 

[bankr63]

So are you saying school staff will not be getting any lunch time or breaks?

Mel

No, just saying I don't know how they are going to do so "safely". My current worry is that there are so many unanswered questions for Ontario at the moment. Someone else posted that NB seems to actually be planning and has things under control. Wondering if they are hiring new well experienced teachers on short notice? I am currently terrified that DW is walking into an absolute sh-show.

In seriousness (something I only rarely display), I DO actually want school to restart. DW is a dedicated teacher and loves her job and her kids. Kids DO need to get back to school. BUT this needs to be done safely! Other counties have proven it can be done with a well thought out plan and lots of resourcing. I admit I already have a chip on my shoulder about our current administration as they have decimated my sector of health care, and I know they DO NOT have a plan when they say they do. I am a project manger in health IT with a string of successes under my belt. I can't get any work in my sector because innovation is now anathema to the current ministry; there has not been an innovative idea out of this government in months.

This thing absolutely requires sober thought and consultation with experts to get right. They are completely flying it by the seat of their pants. When it all falls down, the school boards will get the blame for bad plans. If, by miracle, it actually works, all credit will go to the great ministry action and planning. I personally am terrified of the real and deadly consequences that this might have on my family and the families of DW's school kids. Playing fast and loose with people's lives is a deadly game.

ETA: expect this will be reported and deleted in short order. But really needed to get this off my chest. Thanks to any who read it while it is here.

 

[hdrolfe]

@bababear_50 my son is one who rarely eats breakfast. The first break was when he'd have his first snack, around 10:30. Even when he was going to before school daycare he wouldn't eat there.

My thought, and it is certainly only that, is that teachers will of course get their breaks and lunches, it's the law after all! I would guess that the masks and social distancing would come into play here. It's supervision, not teaching, is there a need to get so close to the kids during this time? I don't think social distancing counts towards the 10 people circle or a worry for transmission if the teacher or whoever is covering the breaks is wearing a mask/PPE, stays 6 feet from the students and washes hands before/after.

I do also worry about substitutes, but perhaps with all the hand washing and mask wearing, people/kids/teachers won't get sick as often?

 

[Aladora]

I know from the parking lot discussions and the local newspaper that our school board wants an answer by August 14th from families. Either in class or online, it's an all or nothing type choice so they can get classes set and lessons planned.

I got an email from DS's new school that said that we will hear something by the last week of August! I think they have to submit their plan to the BC government by Aug 26th. Ugh

Just out of curiosity, how many people have gone to restaurants and especially Walmart since the epidemic?

DH and I have gone out to one restaurant since all this began and that was just a couple of weeks ago. We ate inside but the restaurant had blocked off every other table and there was way more than 2m between them.

Which I guess is another one of those random questions. How long does everyone feel this return to school thing will last before they have to shut it down? After what I just said, I actually think that 8 weeks is pretty optimistic.

Ive been saying to people that I would put good money on there being an outbreak that causes schools to go back to remote learning no later than the second week of October.

 

[bababear_50]

Yeah .......................................................................... about that distancing stuff............and breaks...................

I guess in this situation it kind of sucks to be the E.A in the school that
has paramedical training eh? Seemed like a good idea at the time,,,
They (kids) are all in different classes,,,mainstream.....
G tube feeding/spoon training feeding /suctioning.
Diaper / Depend changes
toilet training
Physio exercises
Ileostomy care
wound bandaging
catheter care etc................................................
Oh Boy


Well it could be ........................

Hugs
Mel
Tomorrow will be sunny

 

[Madame]

Yeah .......................................................................... about that distancing stuff............and breaks...................

I guess in this situation it kind of sucks to be the E.A in the school that
has paramedical training eh? Seemed like a good idea at the time,,,
They (kids) are all in different classes,,,mainstream.....
G tube feeding/spoon training feeding /suctioning.
Diaper / Depend changes
toilet training
Physio exercises
Ileostomy care
wound bandaging
catheter care etc................................................
Oh Boy


Well it could be ........................

Hugs
Mel
Tomorrow will be sunny

Yes it does. EAs/CYWs/ECEs are essential to the functionality of any school. They are also going to be the most vulnerable. Hands down. I am praying for you that this mad experiment is short-lived, or that they come to their senses and hard cap ALL classes at 15 before the year starts (yeah, not going to happen ).

 

[wdwmom3]

For those of you in provinces that aren’t mandating masks for older kids, looks like the feds will be coming out with guidelines that recommend masks for kids ages 10 and up. So your back to school plans may change to include them.

https://apple.news/AIox_E2gBQUmJPf-K7MnyIQ

 

[Iralyn]

No, just saying I don't know how they are going to do so "safely". My current worry is that there are so many unanswered questions for Ontario at the moment. Someone else posted that NB seems to actually be planning and has things under control. Wondering if they are hiring new well experienced teachers on short notice? I am currently terrified that DW is walking into an absolute sh-show.

Yes, so many unanswered questions. But our teacher unions will be fighting to ensure that the school boards are following all aspects of our collective agreements including maximums on supervision time and a 40 minute uninterrupted lunch. How will they achieve that without introducing too many extra points of contact? No idea.

 

[Madame]

Yes, so many unanswered questions. But our teacher unions will be fighting to ensure that the school boards are following all aspects of our collective agreements including maximums on supervision time and a 40 minute uninterrupted lunch. How will they achieve that without introducing too many extra points of contact? No idea.

Don’t know the specifics, but they just pushed through a bill allowing them to override collective agreements, because of the “emergency” situation. Imagine that...

 

[MamaLema]

Just out of curiosity, how many people have gone to restaurants and especially Walmart since the epidemic?

Restaurants- 0
Walmart - few times to get prescriptions only. I don’t want to change pharmacies since they have all my history there

 

[Cdn Gal]

Are other school board really that bad? My kids have never been in a class in elementary school with more then 25 kids. I found this info from our board from the 2017-2018 year. And I only hear of the odd larger class size once they hit grades 7-8. But never more the

My class average over the past 10 years teaching in the junior division has been 29 students.

 

[wdwmom3]

My class average over the past 10 years teaching in the junior division has been 29 students.

Wow haven’t seen anything like that in junior grades here. Just read this and it looks to me like school boards will be looking at trying to reduce class sizes as best they can. I also think with all the pressure the ford government is getting we may hear of some changes. I know for my sons school it wouldn’t be hard to get their classes to around 20 kids.

https://apple.news/ANEouSCKVTvGiOU_F-VlOzA

 

[damo]

Are there enough teachers and nurses available for these possible new hires (if cap sizes are lowered)? If every school needs about 3 new teachers and 1 nurse, would there be enough qualified and available personnel to meet this demand? This might be an impossible situation.

 

[Madame]

Are there enough teachers and nurses available for these possible new hires (if cap sizes are lowered)? If every school needs about 3 new teachers and 1 nurse, would there be enough qualified and available personnel to meet this demand? This might be an impossible situation.

The nurses are not going to be new hires. If you look closely they are current nurses to be pulled from other duties. I think the funding came to the equivalent of 1 nurse shared by 10 schools & custodial funding for 1 shared by 4 - not that it matters as new evidence suggests it’s airborne & nothing in the budget can renovate and fix ventilation in 70-100 year old schools in 4 wks.

 

[ottawamom]

So the nurses and custodians are effectively window dressing for optics. A nurse in a school 1/2 day per week isn't going to be able to do much to monitor the ongoing situation. An extra 2 hours of a custodian each day isn't going to be able to do all the additional cleaning necessary to combat possible spread.

I feel for those of you with a tough decision to make in the coming weeks.

 

[quandrea]

So the nurses and custodians are effectively window dressing for optics. A nurse in a school 1/2 day per week isn't going to be able to do much to monitor the ongoing situation. An extra 2 hours of a custodian each day isn't going to be able to do all the additional cleaning necessary to combat possible spread.

I feel for those of you with a tough decision to make in the coming weeks.

Exactly. This was what I found so difficult teaching special Ed years ago. Sixty kids on my case load, most who were years behind their peers. I was window dressing. A paper pusher. I didn’t have the time nor the resources to help sixty kids. Very frustrating.

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

We don’t have a back to work thread so posting this here.

My office just sent around a sign up sheet for August and September. You pick a colour group (green or blue) and you work in the office alternating weeks with the same 10 people. Then you work from home the next week.

I told my supervisors that I can’t be in the office until school goes back in. Hopefully that won’t be an issue.

Editing to add: DH is driving me nuts, so I officially put myself back at work the week of August 31 since he has a week's vacation LOL

 

[Madame]

The nurses are not going to be new hires. If you look closely they are current nurses to be pulled from other duties. I think the funding came to the equivalent of 1 nurse shared by 10 schools & custodial funding for 1 shared by 4 - not that it matters as new evidence suggests it’s airborne & nothing in the budget can renovate and fix ventilation in 70-100 year old schools in 4 wks.

 

[damo]

The nurses are not going to be new hires. If you look closely they are current nurses to be pulled from other duties. I think the funding came to the equivalent of 1 nurse shared by 10 schools & custodial funding for 1 shared by 4 - not that it matters as new evidence suggests it’s airborne & nothing in the budget can renovate and fix ventilation in 70-100 year old schools in 4 wks.

I had seen this https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-july-30-back-to-school-1.5668495

"According to Dr. Barbara Yaffe, Ontario's associate chief medical officer of health, the government will hire as many as 500 additional public health nurses that will each be assigned to a "family of schools.""

That is a lot of new nurses to come up with. There are already a ton of requests for new nurses ... https://ca.indeed.com/School-Nurse-jobs-in-Ontario

 

[uandmfan]

Even if our school is able to make smaller classes we don't have room for it. We don't have empty classrooms and just getting kindergarten down to 20 kids a class would probably require 4 to 5 rooms. Then there are the junior classes as well (grades 4 to 6). Grades 1 to 3 should all be under 20 kids, but not 15. I don't see how most schools have the physical space to decrease class sizes so drastically.