CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — P.E.I. parents can expect schools to reopen five days a week starting Sept. 8, but provincial officials are recommending students be ready to wear non-medical masks and to be separated into cohorts in order to observe physical distancing protocols.
During a media briefing on Wednesday, Education Minister Brad Trivers and provincial representatives presented a detailed look into the province’s plan to reopen schools. Schools were closed early in the COVID-19 pandemic in P.E.I.
The plans will emphasize grouping students into cohorts to minimize non-physically distanced interaction, enhanced cleaning and disinfecting of schools and classrooms, physical distancing within hallways and other areas, contact tracing protocols and pre-screening of students and staff.
“Going back to school is a very, very positive thing. It's positive for the well being of students, it's positive for parents (who are) getting back to the workforce," Trivers said.
Under the province’s plans, student cohorts remain isolated from one another and will be kept “as small as possible”. The plan did not outline the size of cohorts within specific schools; Trivers said detailed operational plans for all 62 schools in the province will be posted on the website of the Department of Education and Lifelong Learning.
Operational plans of six schools were posted on Wednesday. None of these plans defined the size of student cohorts.
“Cohorts of students will remain in a physical school zone as much as possible and will only cross into other zones when necessary,” noted a guideline document for reopening prepared by the Public Schools Branch.
Students in their cohorts will be assigned washrooms, lockers, sections or a playground and cafeteria and entrances and exits within these physical zones.
“Buses will be available as per normal,” Trivers said.
Arrivals and departures will be staggered within each school, with different times allotted to students walking or biking to school, being dropped off, or arriving by bus. Parents dropping off children in their vehicle will not be permitted to leave their car.
During the spring legislative session, Trivers had released a plan that suggested the province would strongly encourage parents to drive their children to school, to minimize the number of children on school buses. The Public Schools Branch plan does not emphasize this greatly, but Trivers said a goal of his department is to reduce the number of students travelling on buses.
Non-medical mask use will be strongly recommended for students in grades 7-12, as well as for staff and teachers in hallways or other areas where physical distancing cannot be maintained. For younger students in Kindergarden to Grade 6, the use of masks is not deemed to be strongly recommended within schools. For all students travelling on buses, however, the use of non-medical masks is strongly recommended.
All students will be required to carry a non-medical mask in school.
"Within classrooms, we're going to allow some discretion there. We're not expecting every student to wear a mask during all the time they're seated in the classroom," Trivers said.
"We're really asking the older students to step up and wear masks."
Teachers will keep daily attendance logs of students in order to assist with potential contact tracing.
Both staff and students will be asked to go home if they show any COVID-like symptoms, such as fever, chills, sore throat or difficulty breathing.
Visits to school by parents will be limited, and any visitors will be asked to declare if they have travelled outside the Atlantic region.
Extracurricular activities including intramural sports and student fundraisers will go ahead, but all before and after school activities will be “paused” according to Trivers, with the exception of school band practices. Trivers did not say when after-school sports will restart, but a plan for re-launching of these activities will be made available in the coming weeks.
In terms of school curriculum, Tamara Hubley-Little, the province’s director of English education, programs and services, said the focus will be on addressing the potential gaps from the school-year that was interrupted with the onset of the pandemic.
"There would be gaps across most of the curricula. What we would be most concerned about for student learning and progressing would be specifically mathematics and language arts/literacy because they would be foundational to all other subjects," Hubley-Little said.
The province was not able to gather detailed data on the learning impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic from last spring. Hubley-Little said there was no way to have an idea of common indicators across subjects.
Back to School 2020 Posted by Prince Edward Island Government on Wednesday, 5 August 2020
