THREAD:As a parent, teacher, and former school admin, I have a lot of questions about what will happen in NS schools in 4 weeks’ time.

Currently I’m travelling around NS with my family, to support our province’s struggling tourism industry. We are conscientious people. #nsed

Our kids are very responsible. But we’ve dropped masks on the ground. Forgotten them in the car. Didn’t have time to wash our hands before putting them on. Talked perhaps too close to someone on the sidewalk without our masks. #nscovid

Staff members ensure we are distanced in restaurants and stores. They don’t serve as many people at a time. They stop us at the door when they are at capacity. They wear masks to serve us and we wear masks to go anywhere but our table. #nstourism

Everything is disposable now. Your server asks ahead of time if you want sugar, ketchup, salt and pepper. They give you paper menus or they wipe them down. Hotel rooms and diner tables have signs to say they are sanitized. #nstourism

We wore masks for three hours on a whale-watching cruise. Everyone on board did. Even little kids. They had 5 crew members on board for about 50 patrons. They took our temperature before we boarded. Thank you @MarinerWhales in Brier Island!

Schools are where kids and adults get sick. I can chart my calendar by it. When students don’t feel well, we often get a note from home asking if they can stay in during recess. We don’t have extra staff around to watch kids when they need to stay indoors, but we make it work.

Every adult in school has a full schedule. Our minutes are literally accounted for. For every rare prep I get, the amount of work I need to do is 4 times that much. TAs are with students every minute that they aren’t taking their mandated breaks. @cupenovascotia @NSTeachersUnion

Secretaries? You can’t imagine their duties. PLUS Students sent to the office, teachers, admins, TAs, operations staff, deliveries, parents (happy, unhappy), volunteers, senior mgmt, reporters, and solicitations. Everyone has just one thing that needs to be done right now.

I can’t list all the duties of admins. Suffice to say everything in the school from floods to ensuring students are being appropriately taught and fairly assessed is on principals. Everyone else’s responsibility is the principal’s too. Esp in smaller schools. @PSAANS

So who is doing all the extra work that Covid demands? Wiping down surfaces every time classes change? Policing the door to ensure people wear masks and follow the rules and don’t all show up expecting to see the principal on the first day to talk about their concerns? #nsed

Who is distributing masks, sanitizer, wipes, pencils, Chromebooks, white board markers, snacks for kids with no recess or lunch?

Who is making sure kids are actually learning in school and not just sitting consumed with fear or rage over the uncertainty of a global pandemic?

Our vacation took us to Yarmouth this morning. My thoughts told me to go to the source. When would I ever be so close to the constituency office of our Minister of Education @ZachChurchill again? Surely if anyone could speak to this challenge, he could. #nspoli #nsed

I should have made an appointment I guess. Or not assumed he wasn’t on vacation as I am. Anyway, the door was locked. But the rules for his working conditions seem to be quite a contrast to the ones that I and my children will face in four weeks.

Concerned? Tell your MLA and cc @TimHoustonNS & @GaryBurrill

The LEAST we can do is extend the same protections from Covid to students and school employees that every other Nova Scotian is ensured.

To email your MLA from the #NSTU website: https://www.actforeducation.ca/?sp_ref=662304224.392.209682.f.0.2
#nspoli #nsed