Schools throughout the Region ready for students to return - 20% have decided not to do so

News 100 redBy Pepper Parr

September 12th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

 

All the angst, all the concern and even the worry on the part of parents gets faced Monday morning as those who have decided to have their children attend school send them out the door Monday morning – and hope that they are safe.

The educators – all the way from the Director of Education and the classroom teachers – even the custodial people – are anxious.

What happens when someone becomes infected?

There are rules and protocols galore out there to deal with the child that has a temperature or a runnier than usual nose.

Charles Best sign

The challenge is to stay positive.

There will be situations where someone will over react. And there will be situations where a situation should have gotten a closer look.

Everyone is on pins and needles.

Tonnes of money has been thrown at this problem. Schools have enough PPE to last them through to Christmas.

There are all kinds of “what if” questions.

Basically if there is a child that is not well – the child gets sent home.

The Regional Public Health Unit is all over this issue. If a child Is sent home – does the class get shut down?

What has to happen for a school to be closed?

Hand sanitizer replaces reception

Hand sanitizer and a sign in sheet at the only entrance to the school.

This will fall to the principal along with the Superintendent who oversees health issues and the Public Health Unit.  Every school has to post a notice on the school web site reporting that someone at the school has been diagnosed as infected.

The province has a reporting system that will detail where the infections were found and how many.

The communications lines will be wide open.

One should feel sorry for the students who sneezes twice in a row – they will be all over the kid.

Everyone at a responsible level is saying “there will be infected people who are identified as infected people. Some of them will be teachers – we have already heard of infected teachers and how the class they were teaching was closed.

Expect the number of infected people to rise. The big question is – how high might it rise and at what point does the province decide that schools have to be closed and everyone gets taught online.

Last week Paul Thomson, principal at Charles Best Public School, met with parents in an outdoor session with everyone six feet apart. “They asked questions” he said “and I gave them the information I had.”

No visitors sign

Entrance to all the schools will be strictly controlled. Parents will not be permitted to take a child into the school. They get left at the door where teachers greet them.

Thomson is a believer in keeping people informed and being open, direct and honest.

Monday morning the kids troop into the school. The hand sanitizer is just inside the the front door; teachers in full PPE will be there to greet the children.

Everyone will be trying to focus on the educating of the children in their care.

Whatever in the way of the covid virus gets into a school we know that someone brought it into the school.  The person who brought it into the school picked it up from someone else.  We are the people who pass this virus on to others.  If we keep a safe distance, wear our face masks and wash our hands regularly we will be safer.

The understanding at this point is that the virus needs to replicate itself in people.  By staying apart that virus can’t replicate.

Everyone believes that there will be a virus and that that will save us all.  Hope does spring eternal doesn’t it.

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1 comment to Schools throughout the Region ready for students to return – 20% have decided not to do so

  • Penny Hersh

    Really, are the schools ready? Inside Halton reported this morning that a student at Brant Hills Public School, in Burlington has tested positive for Covid 19, as well as a student at Garth Webb Secondary School in Oakville.

    According to the article ” Neither school will be closing and neither will be closing any classrooms/cohorts.”

    The article goes on to say ” For all confirmed cases, families and staff at the school will be notified by LETTER, the Board said, adding ” Halton Region Public Health will contact any close contacts directly” “They may have been exposed somewhere else in the community”.

    Does this make any sense? Does it matter where the student contracted the disease? How long will it take for the LETTER to get to parents? Teachers and students and their families will definitely be at risk if this is how the board intends to handle positive Covid 19 cases.

    No wonder teachers, parents, and students are not convinced that school boards have things in hand.