Previous post was fact-dispensing me. I always encourage folks to read facts and come to their own decisions... of course in many cases disagreeing with whatever my personal opinion might be
Parent-me sent this email to Premier, Min Education, Min Finance, Dr R and my MLA...
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Gentlemen,
4+ days after it was announced that Brandon and PMH are orange and it was implied that we will be seeing something on the framework of the pandemic response under orange for schools, learned tonight that PMH schools including those in Brandon remain in “yellow” and that determination as to orange or not is being put off to a later date.
As we’ve sat in uncertainty for almost five days, this indication for further meaningful delay is flat out an unfair spot to put Brandon parents in as we try to assess whether the present pandemic environment in Brandon is best for our kids and whether the kinds of decisions and directions will be present in the school system that would earn the trust of having our kiddos placed for this school year.
Please stop trying to force the same return-to-school plan and the same timeline down the throat of parents and students in Brandon that’s being put through in centres with minimal caseload such as Winnipeg. Because you’re boxing us into a corner re full-time, in-class-or-bust our only alternative is homeschooling. You can’t reasonably expect us to make that decision on any less notice than we already have when you consider time effort and investment that must go into preparing for homeschool. We would love to be able to look at whatever is proposed in an orange school scenario and decide if it’s right for our kids but the longer you wait in deciding and communicating the more you’re removing our only alternative and forcing our hand.
The way I see it one of three things need to happen:
-provide a distance learning option that those of us with legitimate concerns can enroll in and still choose to be part of the public school division that we want to be part of amidst all of the uncertainty. Consistent with that offered in other jurisdictions such as Ontario and Calgary, whose health authorities have clearly made the determination that it’s necessary.
-delay the start of the school year in Brandon until you can reasonably be in a position to commit to whether we’re looking at a ‘yellow’ or ‘orange’ environment and be clear on what orange would look like so that as parents we can make our own determination about what’s best for our kids. Side benefit to this being that you would have more time to bring together a remote learning option.
Parents should IMO have at least two weeks notice on what the school environment will look like before any scheduled school start date. Nobody would expect you to have a crystal ball 2, 3 or 4 months into the future but considering this one-way-or-the-highway fork in the road we’re at to start the year I don’t think two weeks with a clearly communicated plan is an unfair ask even if you are hesitant to start orange just in case the numbers go down over the next two weeks. There’s a point where it’s unfair to hang hat on “just in case” to the downside.
-perhaps there’s some kind of compromise that involves assurances of an acceptable amount of support to homeschoolers from the school division/school
Thank you for reading and thank you for stepping back to fully re-consider what the present state of the pandemic means to parents in Brandon and that we’re pretty close to if not at the point of no return when it comes to parents making decisions at this fork in the road we face.
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If you agree and you wish to share that sentiment or if you have a different suggestion/solution or if you think I'm out to lunch with what I’ve said and want to send a note of support for their current approach to education in Brandon and Prairie Mountain Health, each minister/officer/MLA has their email address published on their page at the links below...
Premier Brian Pallister
https://www.gov.mb.ca/minister/premier/index.html
Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen
https://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/members/info/goertzen.html
Minister of Health, Seniors and Active Living Cameron Friesen:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/members/info/friesen.html
Chief Provincial Public Health Officer Dr. Brent Roussin:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/health/publichealth/contactlist.html
And the MLAs...
Reg Helwer, Brandon West and Minister of Central Services:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/members/info/helwer.html
Len Isleifson, Brandon East:
https://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/members/info/isleifson.html