Teachers say our kids will be safer at Wal-Mart than in our schools.

The NLTA points to what it sees as numerous inconsistencies in medical directives for distancing and masks, which are not being overlooked in our schools.

President Dean Ingram says it’s clear that government did not put enough resources to have the safest schools possible.

He says they’re rolling the dice and just hoping for the best. Masks for everyone in classrooms would have been a big first step.

Masks are mandatory only in junior high and high schools and only in communal areas.

Neither does Ingram follow the line of thinking that having students “cohort” is the answer.

He says students in junior high and high school move around as they take different courses.

He says the concept of cohorting is invalid as children, regardless of age and grade, travel together to and from school on the same bus.

Opposition Parties Raise Concerns Around Learning Regression, Building Ventilation

The Opposition Education critic is worried about the impact six months with no formal learning will have on students as they return to class in September.

Craig Pardy is a former principal at Clarenville Middle School and the MHA for Bonavista.

He says the English Language School District had 155 days to plan for the coming school year, while the schools themselves have just over three weeks to put those plans in place.

Pardy says the schools have a lot of work ahead of them, and his greatest concern lies with the learning needs of students.

According to Pardy, research shows a 10 per cent regression in learning over the summer, but children heading back to class in September will have been off for six months. He worries that the system will be so consumed with meeting public safety needs that students, especially those with exceptionalities, will fall by the wayside.

The NDP is concerned with a lack of proper ventilation in the province’s schools as children prepare to head back to class.

The role of good ventilation in preventing the spread of COVID-19 is something that is being closely monitored.

Dr. Lexuan Zhong, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Alberta is studying how non-pharmaceutical interventions, like mechanical ventilation systems, could help to contain the pandemic, or help to mitigate future outbreaks.

By the English Language School District’s own admission, most schools in the province are not mechanically ventilated, something that NDP Education critic Jim Dinn says is a serious concern.

That means many schools will be encouraged to use “natural ventilation” – a euphemism for opening windows, according to Dinn.

He says not all windows open properly, and the policy fails to address how adequate ventilation can be ensured in a classroom.

NDP Leader Alison Coffin questions how “natural ventilation” will work, especially in the winter months.

She wonders if that means children will have to be rotated from the window to the heater, which isn’t practical.

Unions Raise Concerns Over Cleaning Protocols

The school board says it has hired 70 to 100 extra custodial staff to help with a more extensive cleaning protocol but the union which represents those who do the cleaning says the workers – in many cases – will not be able to meet the expectations.

NAPE President Jerry Earle says the board hired only casual staff, workers who are meant to replace full-time custodians who are on leave.

He says that still means staffing levels similar to last year.

Earle says not even restricting school facilities to daytime use will have the desired effect.

Earle says gyms are still going to be used by students, as well as the corridors.

The union also has concerns for student assistants, bus drivers and others they represent.

CUPE, which represents about 1500 school board workers in the province, calls the back-to-school plan sketchy and lacking in detail.

CUPE, which represents bus drivers, custodians and secretaries, wonders what the cleaning protocol will be if someone at a school tests positive.

President Sherry Hillier also wonders about plexiglass separations being optional and who decides.

She says school secretaries and others play a vital role.

She’s concerned about not having secretaries behind plexiglass and without a face shield. She calls them the “go-to” people next to the teachers.