By Pepper Parr
July 23rd, 2020
BURLINGTON, ON
We are busy enough with the six feet thing; we’ve never washed our hands as often and there is a leeriness about going out for dinner and being inside the restaurant.
Can we invite friends of long standing over for dinner – perhaps sitting outside on the patio and cooking on the BBQ would be Ok.
Add to all that the concern with getting the kids back to school.
Are the schools going to open? What will the class schedule be and how am I going to find dare care if I need it.
Parents are frustrated – they want information – but the school boards don’t have much in the way of information they can share.
The Halton District School Board met in a Special Session yesterday. In a four part series, this being Part 1, we will tell you what we have learned.
The Halton Board is to meet with the Ministry of Education on Tuesday of next week (they have a two hour time slot) to present to the Ministry how they have responded to the three scenarios the province set out.
They are Conventional, Remote and Adaptive – Conventional being kids in the school, in classrooms all day with fewer kids in each class; Remote being everything will be done on-line with close teacher involvement in what is being called synchronous learning – everyone learns the same thing at the same tome – on-line.
These are the models the Ministry set out. HDSB prefers the Adaptive and will be taking their ideas to the Ministry next week.
The school boards now have all kinds of technology to manage teaching in this manner.
The Board at this point doesn’t have much to go on other than trying to read the tea leaves and figure out where the Ministry of Education is going to go.
Once the Board knows which students are going to return – and then which form of instruction they prefer classes can be organized.
The Halton Board’s understanding is that they will know very early in August which model the Ministry has approved. August 4th was a date mention – but nothing is carved in stone at this point.
With the model in hand the Board then needs to know what parents plan to do. Will their children return to school orwill they opt for remote learning.
If they plan to attend what is their preference – conventional classes or the adaptive model.
The Board also needs to know how many teachers are going to return to a classroom. Director of Education Stuart Miller did say that the Board has a solid list of occasional teachers they can call upon.
French is likely yo be limited.
Extra curricular and co-curricular are likely to be limited as well.
The Board and the trustees are critically aware of how important the “extras” are – they are concerned at this point in opening up classrooms and teaching students with mathematics and literacy being the focus.
This is student life. How do you change it? This group represents what a classroom size is likely to be.
Among the unknowns: are teachers going to have to wear PPE? Will students be expected to wear masks? What happens if an infection hot spot develops? The Board is in constant contact with the Medical Officer of Health.
Classroom cleaning has to be included in the schedules. The additional costs can only be guessed at today – but they are very real.
The most important thing to keep in mind is that at this point – most questions don’t have an answer – nothing can be decided upon until the Ministry approves the teaching model.
Until then, treat all this as background and begin thinking about what you are your family want to do.
