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Uncertainty looms over schools reopening

What to do? There is no right answer for anxious parents wondering if or when they should send their kids to school next month.
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What to do?

There is no right answer for anxious parents wondering if or when they should send their kids to school next month.

Many of them really have no choice, even if they, their child and/or others in the household have a compromised immune system.

Same for the many single or dual-parent households where the parent(s) have to work away from home and have no child care option that isn’t cost prohibitive. Same for the kids requiring additional, hands-on support to work through the curriculum. All kids benefit from the broader socialization -- with their peers and with teachers -- that comes with the in-person learning experience.

Getting through the rest of the school year after the March break was one thing but starting a new academic year under the huge cloud of COVID-19 is another thing entirely. On Friday, the B.C. Centre for Disease Control released the number of total cases the Prince George area has seen so far for the first time. There have been 33 cases within the School District 57 region to date.

To be clear, the risk is relatively low in area schools, thanks to our sparse population scattered over a large area but a glance at Quebec, where students and teachers went back to school this past week offers a possible sneak preview of what’s to come.

At one Montreal high school, an entire class was sent home after a parent of one of the kids called in to say he had tested positive. It took six hours for the school principal to get advice from the local public health officer on what to do.

The Quebec premier and the provincial public health officer said sending all the kids home was an over-reaction.

Every student in the class was back to school the next day, except for the child of the parent who tested positive, which is what officials said should have been done in the first place.

That’s not the only contradictory message Quebec school parents heard.

On Thursday, the education minister said sports and other extra-curricular activities were on hold for at least a few weeks and refused to set a date for a possible return. The next day, his boss – the premier – said sports would be back Sept. 14 if everything goes well.

Teachers and parents were rightfully frustrated by what looked like senior leaders making it up as they went along.

Local parents are already receiving the same kind of crossed signals from School District 57 administration and the B.C. Ministry of Education.

Months ago, provincial health officials identified four phases of the pandemic with Phase 1 being the worst (we’re currently in Phase 3).

The Ministry of Education ignored that and has identified five phases, with Phase 1 being the best.

You could practically hear the face palm slap from School District 57 board chair Tim Bennett when he was asked about it.

“Of course, government made it convenient for everyone,” was his exasperated response.

The school district’s 20-page restart plan released this week had its own mixed messages.

One example.

Page 13: “In person inter-school events (including competitions, tournaments and festivals) must NOT occur at this time.”

Page 14: “In-person inter-school events including competitions, tournaments and festivals, should not occur at this time.”

Should not?

Must not?

What to do?

To be fair, teachers, school administrators, health officials and political leaders are all in the same boat as parents.

Just like parents will make their own choices for their children and will constantly update those choices, each school will develop its own specific protocols, based on the overall district plan, and improve them as they go along. Parents should be prepared to hear about different ways of doing things when they start swapping notes with their friends who have kids at other schools. That doesn’t mean that one school will have it better or worse than another. It only means that the mix of students, teachers and administrators, the student population and even the geographical layout of the school will determine how and when things are done.

This is a good time to explore significant (and, in some cases, long overdue) changes to the education system, everything from class sizes and schedules to distance and home schooling, but implementation is down the road.

What to do right now?

The goal is for students, parents, teachers and staff to work together in this new reality to keep each other safe and to be patient and kind with one another when problems arise.

That’s always the right thing to do, regardless of the circumstances.

Let’s start the lesson there.