Parents have 6 days to choose from these public school board plans for September

The Greater Essex County School Board released its back-to-school plan Monday, which includes "enhanced physical health protocols" to protect students from COVID-19. The board is giving parents six days to decide if their children will perform online or in-person learning. 

The board's plan outlines two learning options for elementary and secondary schools in the region. In the return to school report, the board asks parents to decide by Aug. 17 if they will enrol their children for in-person or online classes using a survey that will be made available Wednesday. 

Elementary students attending in-person will be coming in five days a week, with the same arrangements available for children with special education needs.  

Each classroom will perform all activities together, including lunch and recess, as a way of minimizing the number of students each is in touch with, the plan states.

Parents who choose to keep their elementary-age kids at home will enrol them in remote, online classes and have a learning schedule provided. 

Secondary schools move to quadmesters

Meanwhile, secondary students will be divided into two cohorts, A and B. Cohort A will attend school Mondays and Thursdays, while cohort B will attend Tuesdays and Friday. The groups will alternate Wednesdays and classes will have 15 students. 

Each cohort will be enrolled in quadmesters; students will attend two-150 minute periods a day for 45 days. 

Online learning students will form cohort C. 

The return to school document also includes two other models as back-up plans, should the board need to "pivot to a remote (distance learning) model of delivery." 

The school board's director of education Erin Kelly said its schools are focusing on "enhanced physical health protocols," including: 

• Arrows in hallways for physical distancing.
• Daily screening.
• Staggered washroom breaks.
• Enforcing hand washing.
• Providing personal protective equipment. 
• Enhanced cleaning of high-touch surfaces.
• Spacing out desks.
• Mandatory mask wearing for Grades 4 and up. 

"We recognize this is a challenging time for everyone involved and we respect and value the choices our parents will make," Kelly said, adding that the board hopes to receive responses from parents soon but can also accommodate parents who need more time. 

Family left with unanswered questions, concerns

Aimee Hartigan and her family say they feel pressure to choose, and don't have enough time to decide. 

"I don't feel that they've given us enough time to really fully absorb all of the information and make an educated decision," said Hartigan whose 5-year-old twin boys Myles and Malcolm are both starting Grade 1 in September. 

Despite the 33-page plan, Hartigan said she still has many unanswered questions, which leave her feeling unprepared.

"I think it's premature for me to make a decision, that being said we are leaning towards keeping the children home," she said. 

Hartigan said she still has concerns, particularly around the type of support her son Myles, who has autism, will receive. 

Typically, she said, there's another teacher in the classroom that will go around and help Myles and other children with special needs. 

"I want to know if the school board is going to be hiring additional support staff so that my child is not exposed to somebody who has been to all the other classrooms," she said. 

The Windsor mom added that she's also wondering if sinks will be installed in classrooms to enforce hand-washing, how often washrooms will be cleaned and what staggered washroom breaks will look like. 

But most importantly, Hartigan said, she wonders what the protocol is if a student or staff member gets sick. 

"I haven't seen anything not even touching on that," she said, adding that she'd like to know if the whole class and those families will have to self-isolate and how they'll be notified. 

The school board will hold a meeting Tuesday at 7 p.m. to further discuss the plan.