As we are now several weeks into the new school year, we can clearly see where and how the government’s return to school plan is lacking.  As COVID-19 cases continue to rise, there are several concerns that top the list.

Class sizes are still too large.

We need to keep fighting for smaller classrooms to ensure physical distancing measures can be put into place.

 

There isn’t enough cleaning staff.

According to one CBC article, “schools have 600 to 1,000 kids and there’s one person to do the desktops, the chairs and all the extra cleaning that’s required.”.  The concern, of course, is that the custodians are being overworked and are not able to keep up with the sanitizing and disinfecting needed to keep the virus at bay.

 

Teachers are having to buy their own cleaning supplies.

Teachers are coming out on social media and sharing stories of how they are purchasing cleaning supplies for their classrooms.

 

 

Communication is delayed.

Parents like Paul Thomas are flagging delays in communication with parents.  His Twitter thread walks us through his experience with a positive case in his son’s class.  We’ve also noticed that the ontario.ca website where COVID-19 cases are published, is sometimes delayed by a few days.

 

 

Bus drivers don’t feel safe enough to go to work.

 

The testing & results backlog is keeping kids home unnecessarily.

Between the long lineups at local test centres, long wait for test results and long list of symptoms, kids are not able to return to school in a timely fashion.  This, of course, leads to parents missing work.

 

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