Mountain Insider - Back to School

Rob: Come September, Albertans will be sending their kids back to, well, what they’re calling sort of a normal school year. I don’t think it’s really going to be anything normal at all. Taking a look at the list that CRPS has put out after the announcement, there are so many things that won’t be happening come September in those schools.

Tanya: I think calling returning to normal is kind of misleading because there’s, there’s nothing going to be normal about this, other than classes are going to be in session and there are no limits to what sizes those can be, and that’s one of the issues that I think a lot of people have concerns about. A lot of parents and staff are concerned about the risk around COVID-19 and being able to mitigate that risk to a point where they feel comfortable returning to school or returning to work.

Rob: Taking a look at this list from CRPS, there are things that won’t be happening. For example, playground equipment is probably not going to be available. There won’t be any kind of school sports. They’ll likely be locking the doors during class time, so that in/out access that people were used to won’t be happening, and what does that actually mean?

Our Lady of the Snows sent out an email, and one of the things they suggested is that if you can get your kids to,and from school without having to use the bus system, that might be a good idea. There’s just so much to this and come September, not only our local school board is going to have to figure this out, but parents are going to have to make some difficult decisions as well.

Tanya: The amount of time they’re going to have to make those decisions is growing shorter every day. For Canadian Rockies, parents can expect to see the overall plan on August 14^th and specific plans for their school on August 20^th.

Rob: Back in March, we canceled school because of COVID-19. COVID-19 hasn’t gone away. The situation hasn’t really changed drastically since March. So what’s different now? I mean, why are we going back to school in September?

Tanya: In March there were a lot more unknowns around COVID-19, and I think a big consideration was not overwhelming the healthcare system. Public health officials in Alberta feel that we’re in a really good position to move forward with kids returning to school, even though that is a risk, because we have that capacity in the healthcare system now. There is uncertainty, there is risk, and we’re either going to learn from what other jurisdictions have done that has worked or not worked, or we’re going to learn by doing it our way.

Rob: Public spread indoors is one of the top ways that COVID-19 outbreaks happen, and they’ve basically said it’s almost a given that kids are going to be catching COVID-19. What does that mean for, say, a teacher who is immunocompromised? What does that mean for my son who has Type 1 Diabetes? That’s definitely a consideration we’re going to have to make. What other options are there for parents who are not super comfortable sending their kids back to school right now?

Tanya: What we’re not seeing are the plans for the specific vulnerable populations within our school system. And given that throughout this entire pandemic that has really been a focus, it really behooves the school system start doing that work in communicating with those parents and those people in a