Welcome to the start of the school year. It’s going to be rocky

Thestar.com
Sept. 8, 2020
Kristin Rushowy and May Warren

Many students are still waiting for their timetables and some educators still have no idea what they’ll be teaching -- they don’t even know if they’ll be in a school or working virtually.

Welcome to the start of the 2020-21 school year. It’s going to be rocky.

With the threat of COVID-19 looming, students in some boards are returning this week, and others next week, with elementary and most high school students heading back to full-time classes, though teens in urban areas will get a mix of in-person and online.

Boards have scrambled to hire teachers to lower class sizes where they can after last-minute funding announcements from the province and have redeployed thousands of others. High school timetables have been created, then rejected by the province, and revamped. Furniture, even books and large plants, have been removed from classrooms to allow for distancing between desks.

Educators and parents are worried, and exclusive polling for the Star by Campaign Research shows Ontarians also have mixed feelings.

In an online poll, just 39 per cent agreed younger students can return to school safely this fall full-time, with 50 per cent disagreeing. Similarly, they aren’t sure if teachers can return safely either. About 80 per cent of those surveyed said classes should have 20 students or less; about two-thirds expect schools will be shut down at some point because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

“Chaos reigns supreme,” said University of Toronto education professor Charles Pascal, a former deputy minister of education. “It’s totally unprecedented that teachers, the day before they are supposed to go into class, still don’t have their assignment.”

He blamed a lack of confidence in the provincial government’s back-to-school “safe return” plans for the high number of families opting to have their kids learning remotely this fall.

“If 30 per cent of parents are keeping their kids at home (in the Toronto District School Board), which means 50,000 students will be at home, that safe return doesn’t feel very safe for far too many families,” said Pascal, of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.

Thunder Bay elementary teacher Lisa Dampier said her class size has actually gone up to 27 kids, meaning physical distancing recommendations can’t be met.

“We couldn’t get a metre between the desks -- so students can reach out and touch the person sitting closest to them,” she said, noting there are several classes with close to 30 kids at Westmount Public School. “I’m concerned that we can’t do everything possible we need to do.”

However, she said, “I’m trying to be really confident about it.”

On Monday, Education Minister Stephen Lecce released a statement about the start of the school year, saying “this year is like no other in our past. We will overcome any challenge on the horizon, so long as we continue to work together in the interests of our students and aggressively work to stop the spread in our communities.”

Whether “your first day of school is in-class or online, I want you to know we are behind you every step of the way. Ensuring your schools are safe and thoroughly cleaned, educators trained, supported by the doubling of public health nurses in schools, masking, and cohorting. All designed to keep you safe,” he said.

But in the Toronto public board, the country’s largest, high school teachers are “in waiting mode -- to find out what they are teaching and where,” said Leslie Wolfe, president of Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation local.

The board is starting high school classes next week, after hearing from the province at the 11th hour about modifying its schedule, urging more time for teens to get in-person time with their teachers, forcing a revamp.

“It’s a lot of work and very little time,” said Wolfe. “And it’s incredibly stressful for teachers not to know at this late date what they are teaching, or where they are teaching.”

Classes start Tuesday in the GTA in the Durham District School Board, and some Peel District School Board students will start attending orientation sessions. Other boards return over the next seven days.

Teacher unions have expressed concerns about poor ventilation in schools, proper personal protective equipment, and especially about class sizes. Both the provincial and federal governments have pledged funds, and boards were also given permission to use up more of their reserves to hire teachers.

In Toronto, both the public and Catholic boards have decided to bring in more teachers to lower class sizes in those areas of the city hardest-hit by the novel coronavirus.

Campaign Research principal Nick Kouvalis said while most of Ontarians surveyed are concerned about contracting the virus, they see measures like physical distancing and handwashing as positive moves to keep schools open.

However, he added, most people prefer a mixed model of learning, with kids both in class and at home.

Campaign Research surveyed 1,129 people across Ontario last week using Maru Blue’s online panel. For comparison purposes, a random sample of this size would have a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

Jennifer Brown, president of the Elementary Teachers of Toronto, said “the excitement teachers normally have getting ready for the first day of school -- it’s now fear.”

Brown also said it’s inexcusable that teachers have yet to find out what class they are assigned to, and that schools where in-person enrolment is lower than expected, there are plans for triple-split classes -- combining Grades 3, 4 and 5, for example.

Ashleah Genovy, a middle school teacher in Peel, was told before March Break -- and before COVID-19 shut down schools across the province -- that she’d have a Grade 8 class. She now has no assignment.

Genovy doesn’t understand how Grade 8 students can be in classes in the high 20s when, just a year up in Grade 9, they are in classes of 15 in local high schools.

Mike Foulds, with the Bluewater District School Board, has 32 students in each of his two high school classes. However, he notes, school doesn’t start until Thursday, so that could change.

While he feels “some trepidation,” he is excited to get back to work.

One of his children is heading off to college, where there are no in-person classes, “yet my public school is going to have over 30 kids in the class,” he said. “Somebody didn’t do a good job planning at the provincial level ... the (Bluewater) board has done well, working with the unions” and with the constantly changing demands of the education ministry.

Julie Altomare-DiNunzio, president of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers, said there will be no choir practice or singing in schools. No wind instruments. No assemblies, per guidance from Toronto Public Health, and no field trips requiring group transportation.

Students will be at individual desks instead of in small groups, and even something as simple as scissors for crafts, which used to be passed around and shared by everyone, will now have to be kept in Ziploc bags.

Altomare-Di Nunzio said students at schools in her board will get “passports” -- available in 12 languages -- that they will have to show to indicate this screening has been done.

Students and staff with symptoms won’t have to have a COVID test before coming back unless they’ve had contact with a positive case, but they will need to be symptom-free for 24 hours before coming back to school.

When outbreaks happen some or all of a school will be dismissed, depending on the situation.

“We know it’s spreading, and it’s going to be inevitable that we’re going to have cases,” she said.

“We might be fatigued and tired, but the virus is not tired.”