Parent-educator questions crash course in pandemic school plans

If Plan A for the return to school in September is a go and the kids can all just get back on the bus and get to work, great, then no problem. Carry on. 

But if we need to move to either Plan B or Plan C, somebody seriously forgot to get their collective crap together. 

Plan B is going to be a logistical nightmare. 

On June 25, the province announced that individual schools and school divisions would have to come up with their own distancing plans in the case of low to moderate risk of COVID-19. 

But I wonder who will do that in the summer months, when schools aren't open and front-line education staff and administrators are taking their much needed and deserved holidays? 

Will we be burdening teachers with so much classroom management … that we will impede their ability to actually educate our kids?- Domanie Billinghurst-Schadek

The teachers and staff will be back to school three days early, and that is supposed to give them enough time to implement a plan, if there's even been enough time to create one.

They'll have to prepare for the possibility of a mix of in-class and distance learning, two types of lesson plans, means for at home support, distribution of materials, classroom management, physical distancing requirements, cohort groups and more.

Three days? These past three months might have been an ideal time to develop some of those plans and train the teachers how to implement them. 

Quality of Plan B

The other concern about Plan B is the quality of the education that would be delivered. 

Will we be burdening teachers with so much classroom management with regards to physical distancing that we will impede their ability to actually educate our kids? 

Will students who are siblings be in the same cohort? How consistent will this be across the province? How will parents deal with this logistical nightmare of staggering their children's attendance, drop offs and schedules? How will parents make this work with our employers?

Provincial officials should have spent the last three months coming up with two solid plans that each meet the educational needs of the community and are deliverable by the teaching staff — either in-class or distance learning. 

If they refocus and organize themselves better now (or better yet, if they'd done it three months ago), there will be more consistency across the board and the teachers, students and parents will be in a better position to actually make it work.

If it's not safe for the kids to be in school together, then a solid distance learning plan would make the most sense, instead of knee-jerk reactions to the ever-changing situation with COVID-19. 

Bottom line: Either it is safe for children to be together or it isn't.- Domanie Billinghurst-Schadek

If they can create a scenario where every child has access to online or at home learning consistently, that is probably better than some sort of mix.

Each school should pick an online platform for all teachers to use. If families don't have access to technology, it needs to be provided. 

There would need to be daily and consistent online teaching happening for every child. 

And yes, you still need your educational assistants to provide extra support for those who need it. You will probably need them more than ever before. 

We all just seem to keep banking on the idea that everything is just going to be fine in September, but to assume that next year is going to be some variation of normal is cocky and stupid. 

The time to have developed detailed plans for the real possibility of it not being normal was three months ago. And those details still seem to be lacking. 

Bottom line: Either it is safe for children to be together or it isn't. 

This idea of trying to manage 400 elementary children in a building and keep them from touching each other or surfaces and being able to prevent the spread of any germ is a pipe dream. 

Asking educators to be the ones responsible for that is not fair. 

And if we find ourselves needing a Plan C this fall or winter, I sure hope we have a concise plan in place before then, because most of what I've seen has just been an inconsistent mess since day one.

This column is part of  CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.

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