Regardless of any upcoming announcements on the 2020-21 school year amid the pandemic, Charlotte Ugarenko will not be sending her two kids back to school in September.
The local mom said because of her family’s personal circumstances, she and her husband are not willing to risk exposing their daughters, students at Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School who are five and seven years old, to the COVID-19 virus.
Ugarenko said she is on an immunosuppressant for severe asthma, and is also pregnant with the family’s third child — she’s due in September. She said she’s concerned that if the kids are sent back to school, cases of COVID-19 are going to spike again.
“I know this is not an easy option for any parents, and for me, there is no judgment going to anyone,” she said.
“Our situation is slightly different because we’ll have a newborn in the house and because I’m immunocompromised with my asthma.
“But I understand why people are having to send their children back. Personally I feel that I’m going to sit back and watch what happens. Maybe after a couple of months we’ll reassess. But I’m definitely not comfortable sending the girls back in September.”
Ugarenko said she was already working from home prior to the pandemic, as she was running at in-home daycare —she shut the daycare down just before schools adjourned due to the pandemic, and won’t be starting it up again.
Her husband, who has continued to work, is taking two months’ paternity leave once the baby is born to protect his family from the virus.
While the Ugarenko family has its plans in place, Ontario parents are currently living with a lot of uncertainty about what school will look like in September.
After this past school year was finished out this spring through distance learning, the Ontario government has said it’s up to parents whether or not they send their kids back to school this fall.
School boards have been instructed to be prepared to offer remote education for families who elect not to send their kids back to in-person classes.
Boards have also been instructed to prepare for three scenarios: a normal school day routine with enhanced public health protocols; modified school day routine based on smaller class sizes, cohorting and alternative day or week delivery; and at-home learning with ongoing enhanced remote delivery.
The province has asked school boards to be prepared with their plans by Aug. 4. The government said it will be requesting guidance from public health units by early August in order to confirm the type of delivery appropriate for the beginning of the school year.
In a news release this week, Sudbury MPP Jamie West accused the government of having no clear plan and of providing few details to parents on how school will work in September.
“Parents and education workers across this province are calling on the Ford government to realize that we need a comprehensive plan that considers the needs of communities, families and workers,” West said.
The NDP put out what it called an emergency action plan for back to school that includes hiring more education workers, custodians and early childhood educators; sourcing more classrooms and other spaces for physical distancing; funding more school buses to all for more distancing, and; offer guarantees for parents to take job-protected leave should they choose to keep children home.
Sudbury.com reached out to all four local school boards to speak to them about the planning process, but all four told us an interview on the subject would be premature at this point.
“The reopening plan for Rainbow Schools is a work in progress,” said an email from Rainbow District School Board spokesperson Nicole Charette.
“The Ministry of Education, with guidance from Public Health, will provide further direction to school boards in early August. After we receive this direction, the plan will be finalized. (Rainbow board director of education Norm Blaseg) would be happy to provide an interview at that time.”
However, Rainbow board trustee Anita Gibson posted on her Facebook page that the board’s modified school day plan (which would still have to be approved by the province) would include students in kindergarten to Grade 8 attending school every other week, and secondary school students attending classes four days every two weeks.
Gibson said this information came from a verbal report made by Blaseg at the Rainbow board’s last school board meeting earlier this month.
Another local mom, Amanda Pomerleau, said if schools are open, her two sons, aged seven and 10 years old, will definitely be going back to Markstay Public School in the fall.
She said she and her husband both work full-time. They’ve managed to take care of their kids at home since March through a combination of shift work and flexible work schedules.
“We are not teachers,” said Pomerleau, who said they’ve found helping their kids with distance learning — especially after a long shift at work — very difficult.
The way kids learn things these days is different from when the parents grew up, and then there’s the technical issues associated with 21st century distance learning.
“From March on, they didn’t learn anything,” Pomerleau said. “I’m a huge school advocate. I believe it’s very important. I try my hardest for them.”
While she wants to send them back to school, that doesn’t mean she isn’t concerned about her kids’ safety amid the pandemic.
Pomerleau thinks her older son will be OK with increased safety protocols — he does well with wearing a mask — but her younger son is more of a challenge.
“It’s kind of scary,” she said. “I can’t see them going back full time. We’re only a little more than a month away, and we’ve still got cases popping up. It’s going to be hard, moreso for the younger kids. Those are the ones that are spreading germs during regular flu season and cold season.
“You can’t keep a mask on them. You can’t keep them washing or sanitizing their hands or keep their fingers out of their mouth.”
As for the uncertainty, Pomerleau said there’s nothing she can do right now but wait.
“We’re just going to wait and see how it goes,” she said. “It’s going to be ‘Surprise, this is what’s happening.’ … I don’t think they can make a solid judgment right now.’”
Liana Holm, president of the Rainbow local of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO), said the union has had some input on the board’s plans, but she also doesn’t have anything to share about what’s going to happen at this point.
“Of all the scenarios, I’m sure that between the teachers and the board and our bus consortium, we’re going to come up with the best plan for students and the safest reopening of schools that we can,” she said. “We’re all going to work together.”
Holm said she wishes she had a “crystal ball and I could tell you what it’s going to look like in a month and a half.”
She said she’s been listening to what the government has been saying, and it’s possible the plan for schools will be different based on the region of Ontario your kids attend school.
“It is entirely possible that if we don’t have any cases, our schools might open, but the Toronto District School Board might look differently than we do,” Holm said. “But that’s going to all depend on what public health deems necessary for the safe return.”
She said most of her members want to go back to school, although some of them are apprehensive — it’s a “mixed bag of emotions.”
Teachers could be wearing PPE such as masks and face shields in September, although Holm said she thinks that may be left up to individual choice.
“Realistically, they miss the little bodies that they’re with every day,” Holm said. “That’s why we get into teaching. We get into teaching because we want to be with them, and that’s the most effective delivery model for education.”
