Ellen MacQuarrie is ready to send her children back to school.
The Charlottetown mother is comfortable her sons Lachlan Hillier, 11, Patrick Hillier, 8, and Elliot Hillier, 5, will be safe attending Grade 6, Grade 4 and kindergarten respectively when school returns Sept. 8.
“I’m really happy, for sure, that they are going back full time," she says.
“They’re social beings. They miss their friends. I’m not their teacher, I’m their mom. So, I got much more frustrated (trying to teach them) than their teacher did, I’m sure."
However, MacQuarrie does feel the province’s plan to safely return students to school remains vague.
“I would like to see our school’s plan: what that looks like for drop-offs and pick-ups because I have three of them in different grades," she says.
“Am I going to be sitting out there for 45 minutes waiting for them to come out or go in?"
On Wednesday, the province released details of its plans for a return to school in September. Students can expect to be placed in cohorts, or groups, that will be isolated from other cohorts.
Detailed operational plans for each school, however, are not due to be released for another week. Although operational plans for six schools were posted on the province’s website on Wednesday, the plan for West Kent Elementary, where MacQuarrie’s children will be returning, has not yet been posted.
MacQuarrie hopes students are placed in the cohorts they want to be in, and that there is flexibility to move the children into cohorts they are more comfortable with.
She was surprised with sports being paused, noting safe approaches to summer sports were established.
She adds social distancing will be a challenge to ensure with young elementary students.
“Even if you remind them (to physically distance from others), they don’t remember," she says.
Heather Mullen, vice-president of the P.E.I. Home and School Federation, believes P.E.I. is in a fortunate position. Unlike Ontario, where masks will be mandatory for students in Grade 4 and over, non-medical masks will be only strongly recommended in P.E.I.
However, students will be required to have their own masks with them at school.
"It's going to be different than what it was before, but I think that we'll probably be able to adapt," Mullen said.
"I think a lot of (parents) are just really, really eager to get back to school."
Mullen said she hopes parents engage with their local home and school associations as the school year progresses.
"That is where you bring that feedback as to what's working, what's not working. Can it be improved on a local level?" Mullen said.
Opposition Green education critic Karla Bernard said she was disappointed with the province’s plans.
Bernard said the plans lacked specific details on accommodations for students with complex needs, as well as mental health programming that will be available for students.
She is concerned about teachers having the training they need to recognize when students are dealing with mental health challenges that may have surfaced during the pandemic.
“Sometimes it’s really obvious and sometimes it comes out as behaviours. And if you've got a student who's new to you and you don't know what they're like on a day-to-day basis, you're not going to necessarily notice a change in their behaviour."
Bernard also said details are lacking about the degree of additional staffing – from instructors to counsellors to bus drivers – that will be required to ensure physical distancing is practised both at the beginning and end of the day.
“The plan presented is not much more than a regurgitation of CPHO guidelines,” Bernard said in a statement.
Aldene Smallman, president of the P.E.I. Teachers' Federation, said that, above all, teachers are excited to be back in the classroom. She said parents have also sacrificed a great deal due to the closure of schools from March to June.
But she acknowledged that teachers will need clarification on some aspects of the plan.
"Capping the size of classrooms, social distancing – that's hard in larger schools,” Smallman said.
“Although spacing the students as much as possible will be mandated, the size of classes will make true physical distancing … a challenge."
Robert Mitchell, education critic for the Opposition Liberals, said he plans to take a closer look at the province’s plans in the coming days. But after being briefed on the plans by Trivers, he said he came away with some unanswered questions.
Mitchell said he has some concerns about the recommendation that all students wear non-medical masks on school buses.
"Who's monitoring all this? Is the bus driver? He's driving the bus. Does he have to be the bus driver, the monitor (and) the control person?" Mitchell said.
"There's some things in there that put a lot of onus on the educational staff – bus drivers, the teachers, the (teaching assistants])"
