Editor's note: This interview was completed prior to the provincial announcement of a lockdown that will affect when students go back to school in January.
School boards across the province have had a rocky road to travel through COVID-19.
Now that kids are on winter break, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board is taking a moment to breathe and reflect on the challenges, failures and successes they’ve experienced over the past four months in regards to their response to the pandemic.
Pauline Stevenson, manager of communications for the Catholic school board, says the board was thrown for a loop back in August. The board had approved its plans for moving to a model that would see secondary students do one class in the mornings, and a different class in the afternoons — a model that had been approved by the Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit.
However, the Ministry of Education came, at the end of August, and told school boards they had to go to a quadmester model instead, which meant the boards had to start over with plans.
“That was unexpected,” said Stevenson.
Lonnie Bolton, superintendent of education with the Catholic board, says the plan was to cohort so students wouldn’t be cross-contaminating.
“Our plan was rejected,” he said. “We’re called to serve many masters, sometimes with competing interests, who have different mandates. We have the health unit, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Labour, parents, stakeholders and 22,000 families and we’re trying to meander between changing (advice).
“It’s like having two sets of parents and they all have their ideas about how the house should be organized,” Bolton added.
“Every time we thought we just couldn’t do something, we just dug deep and figured it out,” said Stevenson. “We are so blessed to have the families and students we do have. I think we do a good job of communicating with our families.
“Funny enough, the kids adapt,” she added. “I think we need to give our students a lot more credit for what they’re capable of doing. It hasn’t been easy for all of them but there are some students that are really benefiting from this model. They’re doing better than they would be normally.”
The local Catholic school board provides education to about 22,000 students across Simcoe County and Muskoka District.
“Do you remember how everyone felt even going into the grocery store in the early days? That was relived for staff and students (in September). It was eerie. (They worried), is this safe?” said Bolton.
With hindsight being 20/20, Bolton said he wishes the ministry would have taken more time to consult directly with school boards before making decisions.
“We know the Ministry of Education is trying to react to uncertain times. In light of that, they’ve had very little time to consult school boards,” he said.
Hybrid learning
Bolton also discussed the challenges the board faced early on when they allowed families to switch kids between in-class and virtual learning.
“You can imagine the train station going back and forth. It was very hard to schedule classes,” he said.
In November, the board moved secondary students to the hybrid model, and anticipated moving to the controversial learning model for elementary students as well. However, the board walked back the plans for elementary students due to public outcry after considering a variety of viewpoints on the subject from parents, students, teachers and experts.
“I do feel we landed in a good place,” said Stevenson. “Sometimes you have to take a difficult journey to get to the end result that makes sense. Hindsight being 20/20, we may have handled that a little bit differently.
“For two weeks there, there was a lot of strain on our staff and ourselves. We always had the best interests of our staff and students in mind,” she added.
Stevenson mused that it may have been better had the board gone with a hybrid learning model from the beginning, noting the board is still fielding requests almost daily to switch between modes of learning.
“It’s just not sustainable. We can’t accommodate it,” she said.
The future is now
Bolton says the school board’s reliance on technology has increased dramatically throughout the pandemic.
“We’ve deployed thousands of devices,” he said. “There’s equity of access. We’ve tried as best we can with families that were unable to secure technology, to provide it. It’s not just underprivileged families, it’s also families with multiple children who maybe previously shared a computer now all needed their own.”
One of the unexpected changes the board has experienced, according to Bolton, is that the board has been propelled forward about five to 10 years into the future when it comes to integrating more technology into the curriculum.
“Even back in the spring, all teachers had to learn to use technology in a real way. They had to become very fluent in our various portals,” he said. “(Before the pandemic), we saw that happening five to 10 years down the road where it would be broadly embraced. We’re there now.
“That’s one of the biggest unexpected things I’ve seen, is the broad willingness to change, and it’s been good for students,” he added.
One of the successes Stevenson and Bolton mention that has come out of COVID is the board’s virtual counselling program. Previously, counsellors would travel from school to school and the wait list to see a counsellor was lengthy. With appointments now being done virtually, they say the board’s wait list to speak with a counsellor or psychologist has disappeared.
‘Outbreak’ is an alarming word
The Catholic board has seen five outbreak declarations from the Simcoe Muskoka Health Unit between Sept. 15 and Dec. 18: Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Angus (Nov. 12-23), St. Joan of Arc Catholic High School in Barrie (Nov. 23-Dec. 7), Our Lady of Grace Catholic School in Angus (Dec. 14-18), St. Joseph’s Catholic High School in Barrie (Dec. 11-active) and St. Mary’s Catholic School in Barrie (Dec. 16-active).
Between Sept. 15 and Dec. 22, there were 66 cases total across the school board. Of those cases, there were 15 staff and 51 students who tested positive.
According to the health unit, an outbreak at a school is defined as two or more lab-confirmed COVID-19 cases in students and/or staff (or other visitors) with an epidemiological link (i.e. shared space or objects with each other), within a 14-day period, where at least one case could have contracted COVID-19 in the school (including transportation and before/after school care).
“In all of our outbreaks, there has not been definitive evidence of school transmission. They couldn’t rule it out. Out of an abundance of caution, they declared it because there’s a communication component. It’s an alarming word. though,” said Bolton.
“Most people aren’t understanding that most of our cases are not due to transmission in schools. That’s really the untold story,” said Stevenson. “What that tells us is the protocols we have in place, they are working.”
While Stevenson says the Catholic board has received comments from parents and guardians on various issues throughout the pandemic, one they haven’t heard since reopening schools is anyone upset with COVID health and safety protocols.
Stevenson said the board did two Facebook Live events prior to school starting to hear and address parent anxiety and concern.
“The (concerns then) were predominantly around health and safety protocols. We couldn’t get people to talk about learning or curriculum. People were preoccupied,” said Stevenson. “Our principals have really risen to the occasion and these schools are running like well-oiled machines.”
Out to lunch
One issue the Catholic school board heard about a lot was secondary students gathering together when they leave school grounds for lunch or at the end of the school day, which residents and parents feared would be hot beds of transmission.
For context, Bolton says of the 22,000 students in the board, about one-third are in secondary, while two-thirds are in elementary. Of the 66 COVID cases experienced at the Catholic board those ratios still hold, which is a proportional representation of population.
“Our schools have been very clear that congregation is against public health (advice),” said Bolton. “Even though, if you look at a strip mall there might be kids standing there, it’s entirely different than what it would look like this time last year. There would have been double, triple or quadruple (the number of students).
“While we are seeing some behaviours that aren’t aligned, what we’re not seeing is the same volume of students congregating. They’re doing very well,” he added.
Planning for 2021
Looking forward, Bolton said the board’s leading desire is to maintain stability.
“I’ve kind of stopped anticipating. What we do is we’re proactively planning so we’re positioned well (in the event) we have to pivot, but we’re not introducing any unnecessary changes,” said Bolton.
When looking at the board’s overall response to COVID-19 so far, Bolton said uncertainty reaches far beyond just the education sector.
“There was no manual for this and we were kind of writing it as we went. Even if we would have had a crystal ball... we don't know where we’re going to land in January/February or May,” said Bolton. “The future is so uncertain. We don’t have any real confidence on what is going to happen in our society.”
