School communities in Nova Scotia still have questions about the government’s plan to reopen schools on September 8th.

Cape Breton parent Ray Fraser, who has two children studying at North Highlands Elementary and one at Cabot Education Centre, said he’s very concerned about the government’s program. “So far, I think the plan seems horrible,” he said. “From everything I’ve read, the number one way to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in a classroom setting is to have smaller classroom sizes. But if that’s the number one way, that’s where all our focus should be. And if that’s a group of 10, then the classroom size should be 10 and if that means that you have to split classes during the day and hire more staff, I mean, that’s fine.”

According to the provincial guidelines, most students will return to school in September. Students from grades 10 to 12 and staff will be the only ones required to wear a mask where social distancing isn’t possible, except inside the classrooms. Classes will serve as cohorts, meaning that the same students will always be in contact with the same teachers. Children with underlying health conditions will have to stay home and receive online lessons.

If COVID-19 cases start to flare up, a hybrid plan will be implemented, where younger children will be in smaller classes and grades 9 to 12 will study from home. The worst-case scenario – if the virus spreads through the community, schools will close, and all students will take classes from home.

Education minister Zach Churchill said his department went through 28 000 surveys from parents, teachers and guardians when developing the plan. But President of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union Paul Wozney said the association had offered different recommendations from the guidelines announced on July 22nd. 

“The original phase one called for reduced class sizes with full physical distancing from [preschool] to 9 [th grade] and then, high school students were going to attend on a rotating basis to ensure the physical distancing could occur at the high school level,” Wozney said. “So, we felt good that that plan would allow COVID to be sort of suppressed in schools, even when kids were present. And then suddenly without notice, the government changed talk on that and said, no, we’re going to have everybody back full time. We expressed concerns right from the get-go when that change was announced. They never supplied us with any kind of epidemiological information to say why that move was safe or responsible. So, we had questions that remain unanswered going back a month. And now that the plan is known to the public, we know that parents and students and other people that work in schools, they share the same concerns.” 

On August 10, parents and educators rallied in front of the Nova Scotia legislature in Halifax to protest the plan.

The government announced it will be providing an update later today.

Click here to hear more from Paul Wozney and Ray Fraser in CHNE’s extended interviews.