Peace River North MLA Dan Davies will hold a virtual town hall this afternoon (Aug. 11) on B.C.'s back-to-school plan.
Davies, the provincial Opposition education critic, says the town hall will be a place for parents, teachers, and students to share their concerns with the plan as the economy re-emerges from its COVID-19-induced lockdown.
“I guarantee you’ll see a different return to school for every district across the province,” Davies said.
“You’re going to have school districts with one plan and other school districts running with another plan. One is going to be better than the other, and teachers talk around the province. We saw that in June."
The province announced last month that “most students” will return to the classroom when schools re-open Sept. 8. Students will be organized into “learning groups” of 60 students in elementary schools and 120 students in secondary schools.
School districts have been given until Aug. 26 to finalize their respective return plans.
Davies said continuity of learning plans released for June ranged from a couple of pages in some districts, to binders in others. He worries about inconsistencies across the province.
“Some have good resources, good leadership. Some are struggling. There are lots of small school districts that don’t have the resources,” Davies said.
The province says it is earmarking $45.6 million to enhance cleaning regimes and hire more cleaning staff. Masks will not be made mandatory, but they will be made available to staff and students.
Still, the province has received scrutiny from the BC Teachers Federation, which wants the start of the school year delayed to address its concerns.
“There’s district-level planning that’s going to need to take place, then teachers are going to need time for their own planning [and] also health and safety training,” said BCTF president Terri Mooring. “All that needs to happen prior to students coming to school.”
“I can’t underline enough how complex this planning is going to be… We just need time."
School District 60 Superintendent Stephen Petrucci says planning continues, and that he’s confident the district will be able to draft a plan in line with the province’s expectations amd guidelines.
Most elementary students are already grouped and learning under a cohort model, he said. The challenge, he said, will be to extend that to the middle and secondary students, particularly when it comes to course selection and core courses for grades 8 through 12.
Plans for busing are being developed, and the district expects a slice of of new funding to hire more janitors and custodians, and buy more sanitization stations.
“The key piece here is all of the safety guidelines we saw in the spring will continue,” Petrucci said.
“We are confident that we can plan and open up our schools.”
The back-to-school town hall starts at 3 p.m. and will take place via Zoom. To register, click here.
