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My kids and our neighbours spent the long weekend playing school. My wife is a teacher. In my experience, kids want to be in school, teachers want to teach, and parents want safe schools. We are all invested in kids being back in class, for many good reasons.
We now must depend on and trust government, administrators and public health officials to ensure promised safe conditions. Parents are responsible for determining the safety of their children. This isn’t a criticism, only an assignment of responsibility where it needs to be.
Parents are asked to indicate their decision (on-line or in class) between August 10-17, presumably to aid in planning. The option to change the decision may not be available. @tdsb level plans do not help me to evaluate whether my kids can safely attend school in September.
In order for parents to make an informed decision about the safety of our children, we need school and classroom level plans first. Principals and Superintendents must take ownership of and address the needs of the unique learning communities that they are responsible for now.
My kids are entering SK, Grade 2 and Grade 5. They attend a school in Toronto with large classes, limited room for overflow, no air conditioning, poor ventilation and much deferred maintenance.
Higher education has been planning at a detailed facility level for five months, for a small fraction of adults to return. We have much internal expertise (facilities, health care, Human Resources) to bring to bear and it has taken a huge amount of work.
Given the timing, I do not understand how it will be possible for me to make an informed decision in the next 1-2 weeks, when that level of work has not even begun, and school level expertise required is not available.
Yes parents have a choice. But it needs to be a choice informed by diligently reviewing detailed plans provided by their own schools (whether online or in person).
This is not a criticism of where we are and where we could have been by now - all we can do is move forward. It is simply to say it is not fair to ask parents to take a leap of faith with their children’s lives until such time as those details are available at a classroom level.
