Deputy education minister says province well ahead of most others

While there are still a few things to figure out, schools are ready to welcome students back safely, says New Brunswick's deputy minister of education.

George Daley says preparing for back-to-school amid a pandemic has been daunting, but he's proud of his department's accomplishments. 

"Well, quite honestly, the whole response to a global pandemic has been daunting for us all," said Daley, the deputy minister of the anglophone school system. 

"Everybody has dug in on this since the first. I don't know the number of hours that people have put in, but it's been exceptional, certainly within our departments and our districts and our school leaders. You know, they've really gone above and beyond here since the school closure."

All in preparation for a return to school like no other. 

"There's no playbook that comes with the response that we've had," said Daley. 

"We're coming back into September in a pretty good place, especially when I look and I see some of the struggles that are happening in other areas. Our plan is not perfect. There's going to be bumps. We fully anticipate that." 

But New Brunswick is way ahead of other provinces, said Daley. 

"You know, we're seeing other jurisdictions right now that are in a situation where they are trying to make decisions that we made a month and a half ago. So I think that we've been ahead of the game."

Daley said there are still a few things to work out — particularly in high school, where most students will be alternating days at school with days at home. 

Officials are still trying to determine which students need to attend every day. Some, said Daley, would benefit from daily attendance, including students with "challenging home situations," food insecurity, or those who need regular mental health support. 

Daily attendance might also extend to high schools with enough room to allow physical distancing in all classes. And some schools could see a mixture of daily and alternating days. For example, some schools could accommodate Grades 9 and 10, but Grades 11 and 12 would have to attend on alternating days. 

Daley said principals are still working out those details within their operational plans. While some schools have completed their plans, most have not. And all plans, said Daley, are a work in progress and will be tweaked as needed. 

While some students might disagree, Daley said it's actually good news that some high school students will be allowed to attend every day. 

"That certainly is the goal for us, is to be able to provide safe, sound classrooms with a high-quality education. So it's going to be good news." 

Some schools have already informed parents about those decisions, while others are still working on their operational plans, said Daley. 

"We have established dates that those operational plans need to be released to parents. And my full understanding is everyone will meet those. So, you know, the public and the school community will be well-informed before they return."

Connection problems

Students with limited or no access to the internet may be permitted to attend school every day — provided the school can accommodate them. 

"It's really going to depend on a particular school," said Daley. 

For example, if a classroom was only two or three students over capacity, those students could be accommodated in the school library, he said. 

For those without adequate internet at home, who cannot be fit into other parts of the school, the department is looking at finding alternative learning spaces. 

As part of their operational plan, principals have been asked to identify "secondary learning places for students who have no signal or no service," said Daley. 

He said the locations could include the school library, public libraries, community centres, and other locations that have adequate coverage. 

Surveys conducted in June found that roughly 80 per cent of students in the anglophone sector had access to high-speed internet at home, and only two per cent reported no internet access at all, said Education Department spokesperson Danielle Elliott. 

In the francophone sector, roughly 90 per cent said they had access to high-speed internet, and only one percent had no access at all.

Rural connection problems

Gail Carpenter is one of those parents worried that her internet connection won't be enough for home learning. 

Carpenter lives in Wickham, a rural community along the St. John River, and her son, Cole, will be starting Grade 12 at Belleisle Regional High School next week. 

She managed to find him a computer that meets all of the department's specs, but she worries that her rural internet connection won't be able to do everything required. 

"I am not sure if we're going to have enough to do a steady stream, especially if they have video classes or anything like that," said Carpenter.

Like so many others, Carpenter was sent home to work when the pandemic hit. That experience provided a glimpse into what Cole might face when he has to connect with his classmates. 

"It was frustrating when things would freeze or they would stop or you would miss things," she said. 

BYOD

Daley said the "blended learning" model, which combines in-class and at-home learning, was made possible by the bring your own device, or BYOD, plan. 

Students in high school are expected to provide their own device, and the province will pay a portion of the cost for low-to-middle-income families through its laptop subsidy program. 

Individual teachers will decide how to use these devices and integrate them into their curriculum plan.

Daley acknowledged that some parents have been experiencing delays in getting laptops for their children, and he said schools will try to provide loaners to students who haven't received their devices by the time school begins. 

He said education officials tried to come up with minimum standards for laptops that would see students through their high school years and not have to be upgraded. 

He said students could use devices other devices or even cell phones, but that they're not ideal because they may not be sufficient long term. And, in the case of cellphones, the small screen size is not ideal. 

Daley said such BYOD programs will allow students to keep learning even in the event that schools have to be shut down again for any reason. 

School connectivity

Before COVID, not all high schools had sufficient coverage to provide internet access to all students, said Daley. But education officials have been working for the last few months to ensure all schools had enough service for the upcoming school year. 

While not all schools are there yet, Daley said they will be in the next couple of weeks. 

Students will be given individual passwords to allow them to access the internet at their school. But schools will have a firewall that will restrict them from accessing inappropriate content. 

During his briefing on Thursday, Daley made one thing abundantly clear — days that high school students spend at home are not days off. Teachers will be asked to track attendance and participation of students while they're at home. 

Exactly what those "synchronous" learning sessions will look like will be determined by individual teachers. He said students at home could be connected for the entire class period to their counterparts at school that day through programs like Microsoft Teams. 

Or they could be working — unconnected to the rest of the class — on individual projects. 

Information for parents

Educational officials have been providing twice-weekly updates for parents through live streamed briefings. 

While new topics are discussed at each briefing, Daley said most of the information has been available for a while online in a document, Return to School: Direction for School Districts and Schools, which outlines the requirements schools and school districts must meet.

The next public briefing on the province's back-to-school plan will be held on Tuesday. 

Interscholastic sports

All school sports are allowed, although they'll be played in front of fewer spectators, and potentially with fewer players as well. 

For all outdoor sports, spectators will be limited to 50, while no one will be allowed to watch indoor sports. 

If a sport has a governing body, then the return-to-play rules of that organization will guide the activities, although the education department's ban on spectators inside will trump whatever the governing bodies say about spectators. 

In K-8, games will be played between geographically close schools in order to try to limit the amount of travel. 

Intramural sports

Intramural sports will be allowed from K-8 within classroom bubbles, and in high school, only when physical distancing of one metre is possible. 

In the event that the province moves from its current Yellow phase back to Orange or Red, all intramural sports will be suspended. 

Physical education 

Physical education classes will resume for all grade levels, although teachers will be encouraged to use outdoor spaces when possible. 

Students in K-8 will stay within their class grouping, or bubble, and not have to physically distance, which is the same rule that applies in classrooms.

Class groupings, however, will have to stay two metres away from other groups, and if two groups are using the gym at the same time, a divider or curtain may be used to keep them separated.

High school students, however, will have to keep one metre away from everyone else — just as they will have to inside the classroom. 

Equipment will be disinfected after each use, and if that's not possible, the equipment will not be used. All students have to use hand sanitizer when entering and leaving the gymnasium.

Extracurricular activities

Most extracurricular school activities, including field trips, will go ahead but those that can be done virtually, such as chess club and student council meetings, will be encouraged to do so.