Much more information on the return to school - big news is the start date- Sept 14th.

News 100 blueBy Pepper Parr

August 27th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

 

While the Medical Officer of Health is responsible for health matters – that responsibility doesn’t include what happens at your front door as the kids head for school.

Dr Meghani at news conference Hamilton

Dr Meghani, Regional Commissioner and Medical Officer of Health

For parents – it starts at home.

Dr. Hamidah Meghani told the virtual Town Hall audience that parents are going to have to work with their children to explain what is going to be different when they return to school.

There were several thousand people listening to the presentation and more than 2600 questions were sent in before the meeting began.

A lot of information was passed along during the presentations but there are still a lot of unanswered questions.

The Gazette will beaver away at getting answers for you.

By starting at home Dr Hamidah Meghani meant “talking to your children about what is going to be different” and to refer to the poster the board had made available, which has a check list of the things to watch for.
Poster

She made the point that socialization was a huge part of an education and having students in classroom was better than their being at home.

A lot of parents didn’t agree with that statement and have chosen to keep their children at home and have them learn virtually.

There is a lot of follow up to be done. Material that was presented last night has not yet been made available to media.

When it is available we will publish it.

The organization of the elementary classes will be considerably different than those at the secondary level.

The Halton District School Board had its plan in place weeks ago but could not proceed with it until approved by the Ministry.

New rules about personal safety were put out by the Ministry yesterday afternoon – making it extremely difficult for both the Boards of Education and the Regional Public Health unit to properly inform the public.

Expect their analysis and interpretation of the documents they got yesterday to be done by the end of the day – the Gazette will pass those along when we can get access to them

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3 comments to Much more information on the return to school – big news is the start date- Sept 14th.

  • Penny Hersh

    Phillip,

    I would suggest smaller class sizes. There are plenty of empty hotel rooms and convention spaces that would happily accommodate and adapt their space to become classrooms. A combination of in-class and remote learning and definitely no sports, assemblies or after school activities.

    Baby steps……

  • Penny Hersh

    Too much is being left up to parents on a daily basis to determine whether their child is not well enough to attend school and infect others. Universal testing is not available in Burlington. One has to make an appointment, then get tested and then wait up to 5 days to get the results.

    I agree that children need to return to classrooms, but only when a tested plan has been put in place. Thousands of children in the United States who have returned to classes have tested positive for Covid-19, causing schools to close. The plan for Ontario children returning to school changes on an hourly basis.

    I understand that Burlington thankfully does not have the number of Covid 19 cases that exist in the United States. It only takes 1 student to test positive to put many students and teachers at risk.

    Children to date, seem to be somewhat exempt from contracting Covid 19 – however, this is a result of being keep in isolation. Not meeting with friends or attending social functions – this is about to change.

    Plans on how to deal with a student that tests positive for Covid 19 in a school situation seems to be precarious at best. Nurses will be in schools? Will each school have a nurse, or will schools be sharing a nurse? Is it even possible to hire enough nurses to fill the needs?

    For some parents keeping their children at home unfortunately is not an option.

    The plans for a safe return to the classroom in Ontario presently seems to be like playing Russian Roulette.

    • Phillip Wooster

      Penny, no perfectly safe option exists in the current pandemic for opening the schools. The best option is to keep the schools closed until a vaccine is developed and administered. But for some parents, this is not an option. What would you suggest?