Public school board faces some very serious challenges - waiting for the province to give directions

News 100 blueBy Pepper Parr

July 17th, 2020

BURLINGTON, ON

 

Stuart Miller H&S tight look

Director of Education Stewart Miller

The Halton District School Board trustees were given a glimpse of what Director of Education Stewart Miller is up against with the provincial government and what school will look like come September.

It was not a pretty picture.

There were three scenarios with several permutations within each scenario.

1: Continue with the distance learning that was in place from March through to June.
That experience wasn’t very satisfactory for the students, the parents and the teachers.
Few of the teachers had any experience with distance teaching; there was precious little available in the way of educational tools in the beginning.
Things did get better by the end of June but no one was looking forward to doing this again.

2: Return to full time classroom teaching using the social distancing rules which would have about 15 students in each classroom.
The problem there is – the Board doesn’t have the space needed – they would need double the space – which they don’t have. Renting outside space was a possible option but Miller doesn’t believe this will work.
Not enough space for the new classroom size model and not enough teachers. Miller wasn’t sure how many teachers he would need – something very close – maybe a bit above 1000 additional teachers – which may not exist. Every school board would be doing the same scramble for space and teachers.

3: The third option has been labelled “adaptive” learning which would get different treatment at the different levels – secondary being handled one way and elementary another.
Some of the ideas being floated are a situation where students attend for five days in a classroom and then five days at home where distance learning would come into play.

Blackwell July 15 2

Superintendent Terri Blackwell explaining what she thinks will happen with secondary students when school starts in September.

Three Superintendents have been tasked with coming up with a proposal that they will have to take to the Ministry of Education and defend what they propose.

That meeting is scheduled for August, The Ministry will listen and then get back to the school board with directions.

Superintendent Terri Blackwell is doing the deep think for the secondary level while Scott Podebarac does that work for the elementary level.

Superintendent Julia Hunt Gibbons does the number crunching – trying to find a way to make the available space fit the number of students.

The three will be reporting back to the trustees on July 22nd with what they feel they should take to Queen’s Park.

Premier Doug Ford has been his usual adamant self when he says he wants every student in a classroom come September.

Making that happen is the challenge
The HDSB has not surveyed the parents – the three superintendents think it is a little too early for that. They don’t know what they are going to propose yet- little point in asking for an opinion without giving the parents the options.

There are additional concerns. Miller reported that 20% of the teachers are not certain that they want to return to working in a classroom.

The other concern is that some parents do not want to send their children to a classroom where they will mingle with other students that are not part of their bubble.

Add to that the problem with getting the kids to school. The number of students on a bus will be lower due to social distancing and parents fear that the virus would well be spread on the school bus with kids from a number of locations being stuck on a school bus.

The problems the school board administration faces are massive – and they aren’t going to get any easier.

The administration meet frequently with the many unions that are part of the educational system. Scott Podrebarac said the conversations are cordial.

ndrea Grebenc July 15

HDSB Trustee Chair Andrea Grebenc

Chair of the trustees Andre Grebenc said that is not what she is hearing.

Hundreds of teachers have taken short courses that focus on teaching from a distance and working with students and parents who have to cope with a much different educational environment their children are now part of.

Lurking in the background behind all this is the threat of a second wave – that many of those in the science community suggest is inevitable.

If there is a second wave in the fall (120 to 150 days away) and we are back into a lock down – no one is saying public what the next step is –
Hopefully there are people in a room somewhere that are doing some hard thinking.

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3 comments to Public school board faces some very serious challenges – waiting for the province to give directions

  • Rob Allan

    HDSB were on a mission to cut costs for short term gain. There clearly is no plan for the future for a region that’s projected to grow 500,000 in the next 30 years. Who in their right mind would close schools???

  • Sharon

    Miller is thinking of renting space?? Pearson and Bateman High School stand empty so use them. With the 2 additional high schools (that should’ve never been closed) all Burlington high school students can go back 5 days a week full time!!
    That didn’t take a rocket scientist!!

  • Cheryl

    But let’s not forget the Halton District School Board and School Board Trustees closed two high schools in Burlington which was a very short sighted decision.

    They will not be able to social distance at high school such as Dr. Frank Hayden thats sitting at 156% overcapacity. Here’s a brilliant solution open up those two high schools to allow for social distancing.

    The school board and the minister of education better listen to the medical experts and get the kids back to school for normalcy and for their mental well-being. We need to learn to live with this virus