Discussions

Town hall 60 minutes come and gone.  
See comments that follow the tweet below for a summary by clicking on it. Impression is to not expect a lot of deviation from the plan going into the school year save for masks being on the table. Seem to be holding firm on needing a specific medical requirement in order to offer at home learning on par with what Ontario and Calgary are making available:  

1/? Thread: COVID-19 town hall now underway: One caller asks about substitute teachers moving between schools. Kelvin Goertzen says expectation is teachers (substitutes and others) will maintain two-metre distance. #mbpoli #covid19mb

— Steve Lambert (@stevelambertwpg) August 19, 2020

CBC story on the phone question and answer session:  
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/manitoba-town-hall-covid-19-back-to-school-1.5691620  
 
Another avenue to submit questions in which they say Minister Goertzen and Dr. Roussin are listening is at the link below. You can also view many questions that they've chosen to answer. You have to create an account to post a question, but it's pretty quick and easy:  
https://engagemb.ca/welcoming-our-students-back-restoring-safe-schools?tool=qanda#tool_tab

Release at the link below re Mask use being mandated for grades 4-12 when physical distancing is not possible.  
https://news.gov.mb.ca/news/?archive=&item=49090  

They announced the new Pandemic Response System at the link below:
http://www.manitoba.ca/covid19/restartmb/prs/index.html

As of now, Prairie Mountain is at the same risk level as the remainder of Manitoba. i.e. Brandon's present state is at least as of now not necessitating any different response than parts of the provide not experiencing an outbreak. 
 
No indication of any change re remote learning or other points that parents have expressed concern in.

Had a chance to look over the pandemic response system in more detail with my parent hat on. Because something of this ilk was one of the points I mentioned earlier in this thread as something I wanted to see, I thought this was the place to add some thoughts.  
 
Anything that effort and thought goes into under these circumstances deserves a thank you for working toward making things better, but I can’t help but wonder if I’m either missing something or if there’s a lot more still to come. What I’m seeing is something that only breaks down by health authority, one that’s mainly re-packaging data that was already shared elsewhere and one that effectively has Brandon’s current pandemic level as comparable to Churchill’s or Hecla Island's.  
 
On the press conference stream I heard a description of a system that drills right down to region and even narrowly defined sections of regions, but that doesn’t seem to be in place because I’m not seeing anything that gives us a chance to see an assessment of Brandon’s clearly unique state relative to the rest of the province and to know how close we are to going “orange.” No indication of what our community spread is, no regional breakdown of test positivity rate.... only a reference to the fact that health officials monitor these stats (I.e. they exist in a database somewhere and they at least initially don’t seem to be sharing them publicly). These are the things that would in a transparent way have us know where we sit and I can’t tell if they aren’t being shared because they don’t feel we’ll understand them, because they’re concerned it would lead to panic or because they still haven’t established the technical ability to publish the data through their system.  At least we continue to have the one piece of data made available earlier this month that breaks down active and recovered cases for Brandon, but thats not enough when that stat by itself isn't even on the list of metrics used to assess. 

Once you dig into the document that goes over the steps and responses, there’s a mix of some good info on scenarios and responses coupled with vague statements like orange level's  “schools may be more restricted by occupancy limits and more requirements for remote learning especially for grades 9-12.“ The document is still definitely worth reading since it does make the picture at least a little less muddy. Link is https://manitoba.ca/covid19/restartmb/prs/index.html 

The good news is that there seems to be an understanding of what people need based on what was described at the media briefing. Like so many things during the pandemic it’s try, listen, learn, adapt, evolve and I hope that’s the intent here too because the potential is definitely there but as it sits right now the system does very little to give me as a parent what I’d need to feel comfortable that I know what’s going on now or that I would if the outbreak worsens in the community while our kiddo is in a school daily full of 500 kids.  
 
As far as our decision, for lack of proper remote learning co-ordination a-la Ontario or Calgary we strongly lean the home-schooling direction for at least the first term despite the added expense. We're also exploring remote learning alternatives offered by other provinces. One BC school division’s remote learning school even offers to do remote schooling for out of province students for a fee.... wouldn’t it be great (and not unreasonable under the circumstance I don't think) to be able to unlock that $14k per Manitoba student that’s earmarked and redirect it to an education alternative!

Based on Prairie Mountain Health region including Brandon being elevated to 'orange' or 'restricted' status today, it sounds like we might expect some changes to plans for school. It was said at today's media briefing that discussions are ongoing of what that might look like, but it was said that the document at this link that was published yesterday can give some guide as to what might be expected:  
http://www.manitoba.ca/asset_library/en/restartmb/pandemic_response_system.pdf

Today, PMH was moved from Yellow to Orange as a part of the #RestartMB Pandemic Response System https://t.co/wp7ebA2VkU. Pages 29 and 30 will show how it impacts the Brandon School Division. Further updates will be provided as we work on this new directive from Dr. Roussin.#BSD

— Brandon Schools (@BrandonMBSD) August 20, 2020

Please see an update from Dr. Marc D. Casavant, in regards to the announcement that was made today by the Chief Provincial Public Health Officer and the Minister of Health. https://t.co/FOZ70Dv8Rs#BSDSChools #BSD #bdnmb #Brandon pic.twitter.com/PzsIbfhYAI

— Brandon Schools (@BrandonMBSD) August 20, 2020

Homeschooling and Remote Learning each have their benefits and will definitely both have some elements in common, but really need to make the distinction between the two and what the requirements are of a household in each situation.  
 
Homeschooling requires the parent basically assume the role of the teacher and take on the commitments that go with that. We have some experienced homeschool voices on here that I’m thinking will be happy to share examples of homeschool parents that find a way to balance ways to make money while homeschooling… but the percentage of parents that can make it work has to be quite low based on work/financial needs, and that's without getting into the short notice of pulling together a curriculum to teach on.  
 
Remote learning being facilitated at least in part by a teacher on the curriculum allows a lot more flexibility for a parent to still be fulfilling a larger role in the working world. In Ontario I read that its going to be 200+ minutes of teacher-directed Zoom-style learning per day. Its still not easy and does ask for more from the parent to make sure their kiddo gets the education they need but the right remote learning setup does allow for a balance that can work for a certain percentage of parents.  
 
I go on the assumption based on the Ontario data that somewhere around 1/4 of students would be in a position where they can learn remotely from home here too if the option was made available. I'll assume that those in a position to full-stop homeschool are a much smaller portion of that.  
 
The work-from-home trend was already becoming more and more of a thing and it looks like Covid has accelerated it based on some companies that are shifting towards big portions of their workforce permanently working from home. It wasn't long ago we were reading stories that at least some form of blended learning is where education will continue evolving toward in the future.  It doesnt apply to all jobs but if 1/4 of families are potentially already in a spot to make it work it's just hard to reconcile with the idea that they aren't making it an option under the circumstances when you see that places like Ontario and Calgary are able to pull it off.  
 
For us the goal is ultimately to end up back in the classroom setting (no expectation that there'd be a jumping back in mid-term of course). Remote learning that happens to also be connected to the school (or at least school division or an alternative coordinated by the school or division or Province) has the added benefit of being that much more ready to re-integrate when we're more comfortable doing so.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to take on the role of victim and complain and watch the world pass by. We would work our butts off and find a way, but we'd do so feeling a little abandoned by decision-makers in forcing this one-way-or-the-highway Provincial plan as it stands right now. 

Edited by Adam, 2020-08-21 12:11:55