Since August 17, school divisions across Manitoba have announced their back-to-school plans. Aspects of these plans are subject to change, however, and in fact one very large, province-wide change has already been announced in the days since: mask-wearing will now be mandatory for all students from Grade 4 to Grade 12 while in school.
The highlights of the overall plan so far include mandatory in-class attendance for children aged 7 to 18. This means that remote learning in September will not be an option for many, as it was for short time period in the spring of 2020. Parents are to ensure their children participate in learning as outlined in the plan, or to register formally for home-schooling and indicate this choice to their school division.
The Plan
The plan, which Manitoba Education is calling Level 1: In-Class Learning, includes a few ways in which at-home or online learning will still be made available. For example, while Kindergarten to Grade 8 students will return for five days of full in-class instruction per week, high school students in Grades 9 to 12 will likely experience a combination of in-class and remote learning.
Students who contract or have been in contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 will be required to follow Manitoba’s public health guidelines. If that does happen, at-home learning packages will be provided for students who are required to self-isolate or quarantine.
The plan also includes the precaution that if COVID-19 cases are detected in a school, the province may advise administrators to shut down classrooms or portions of buildings. This option will be treated as a last resort.
In a phone interview with The Citizen, interim superintendent of the Hanover School Division, Shelly Amos, confirmed that there is a plan in place for that scenario.
“If schools shut down, we pivot to remote learning, like we did in spring,” says Amos. “Although we did that in a very quick crisis mode, we were able to do it. We’ve learned from that since then obviously. And so we will be increasing the quality of what we will offer.”
Until the first case at a school occurs, the plan for prevention is comprehensive and based on applying the fundamentals of virus prevention. For example, it will be up to parents to self-screen members of their family and decide whether to send their children to school. Any students exhibiting symptoms of respiratory illness, even minor symptoms, should not attend class.
Other protocols include extra hand-washing and sanitization stations, two metres of physical distancing whenever possible, cohorts for the purpose of contact tracing (groups of up to 75 individuals who use the same teachers or spaces), and increased cleaning and disinfecting throughout the day.
Decisions regarding appropriate responses in the event of a positive case of COVID-19 will be made on a case by case basis, with Manitoba Public Health leading the response and providing guidance.
Parental Concerns
For many parents, these back-to-school plans spark feelings of anxiety, anger, and the full spectrum in between. The low number of local COVID-19 case numbers was a measure of comfort for some, but that reassurance has been removed for many parents due to the spike of cases in the last few weeks.
Parents in the Niverville/Ritchot area in particular, who have seen a comparably high number of cases appear in their relatively small region, see more and more reasons to be concerned.
“When our area’s COVID-19 case numbers were very low, I felt okay with sending our girls back to school full-time, but now that numbers in our Niverville/Ritchot area are increasing it does make me nervous,” says a parent of students attending Niverville Elementary School. “I do believe [Hanover School Division] and all divisions are trying their best to make school a safe environment for our children.”
This parent emphasizes that the topic is sensitive and controversial, and all families’ decisions should be treated with respect.
“If a family decides to home-school or hire a private teacher, that is their own decision and we shouldn’t judge them,” this parent says. “Our family does plan to send our girls back to school full-time, but at times I do feel like a guinea pig in a science experiment.”
Another parent said, “I’m not at all confident that we can handle or monitor the frequent hand-washing that is required or ensure the physical distancing necessary. Currently we don’t have the space to allow it with the number of students we have enrolled. I don’t think it’s fair to expect teachers to do in-class and distance education. It’s just too much. If home-schooling is an option, there are private tutors that can be hired and a lot of creative curriculum plans.”
An overarching opinion communicated to The Citizen is that the class sizes in schools are a problem that pre-exists COVID-19, but the onset of the virus has only made the trend more worrying.
Ever since Manitoba’s provincial government lifted the cap on class size from 20, many schools have seen an increase in the amount of students assigned to one classroom. The number of children in a contained area is a concern when social distancing measures are among the fundamentals we should be employing to prevent the spread of the virus.
“The one component I haven’t seen, and would like to, is the attempt to make classroom sizes smaller,” says another parent. “I understand the cost and reorganization factor of this, but it would still be nice to see.”
School Division Response
Amos responded to these reports of parental concerns by explaining the manner in which Hanover School Division follows the recommendations of Manitoba Public Health. She seeks to assure parents and families that all of these mandated protocols and guidelines will be followed closely.
“The reassurance I would give to our families is that we feel supported by Public Health,” Amos says. “These [HSD] decisions are supported and informed by Public Health. They will help us lead the charge in decision-making.”
But decision-making can change rapidly during this pandemic, and Amos says that the school division works closely with the province to ensure that there is a team-led approach, supported by the best and most current information possible.
“We have regular calls with the Assistant Deputy Minister and the Deputy Minister for Education, as well as those who work underneath them,” Amos explains. “We also have weekly calls with the [other] superintendents across Manitoba. We work with Manitoba school boards to stay in contact. We work with and look to these three groups for clarification and guidance. We’ve also had some of our own town halls with Dr. Roussin for superintendents and leaders, principals and vice principals. We get to hear directly from him and ask questions and get clarification, so those are helpful as well.”
When asked if she feels Dr. Roussin has been listening to educators, her response is emphatic: “Absolutely I do. I absolutely feel heard.”
In the meantime, HSD administrators are in the process of reviewing the province’s recently announced rapid response strategies. On that, Amos anticipates that more specific information will be made available to parents soon.
“Our intention will be to release a weekly update from the superintendent office,” she adds. “Any new guidance we get, or new piece of the plan as it evolves, we will give an update on. One of the pieces of correspondence I am working on is to help parents to know exactly what we will do if a classroom or school wing needs to be closed.”
She emphasizes that communication is important and that the HSD is striving to provide direct that clear, frequent, and transparent communication with parents.
“And we are open to feedback,” says Amos. “I want people to know that we care about them, we care about their children, we care about our children’s families and our staff. We know there is a lot of anxiety and trepidation, but we also know that children learn best at schools. We look forward to seeing our children again in our schools, but at the same time providing a safe environment.”
HSD’s school offices are scheduled to open on August 26. Additional communication regarding school-specific plans will be provided on August 28.
Mandatory Mask-Wearing
The original plan released on August 17 included mandatory mask-wearing for bus drivers and bussed students, with only a strong recommendation for students in Grades 5 to 12 while in the classroom. The province’s stance on this subject has since changed, with in-school masks now being made mandatory.
“Out of an abundance of caution, and having listened to the input of literally thousands and thousands of Manitobans, we will be requiring mandatory use of masks in schools for Grades 4 to 12, where physical distancing two metres apart is not possible,” said Premier Brian Pallister at a news conference on Wednesday, August 19.
Most parents The Citizen spoke with have greeted this update with positivity, saying that they are willing to help their children acclimatize to the new feeling of wearing a mask daily.
“Over the past months, as a family, we have been wearing a mask in all public places and our daughters are slowly getting more comfortable with this,” says one local parent.
But others parents still don’t see the situation as being safe, even with mandatory masks.
“My eight-year-old knows that he touches his face and mouth all day and he can’t help it,” another parent says. “The idea of voluntarily putting himself at risk actually gives him great anxiety. We as a family would rather put up with the insanity of home-schooling rather than subject him to an endless list of protocols that detract from his ability to learn. I want to be clear: I fully support children being in school—not only for the fact that teachers are specially trained to deliver the Manitoba curriculum to these age groups, but also for the social aspects which are critical to his enjoyment of life and the development of interpersonal skills. So I get all that.”
