A local mom is urging the province to make new plans for high school schedules in September, rather than recycle the same plan over again.
While Simcoe County school boards and the ministry of education haven’t yet officially come out with their full September plans for the 2021/22 school year, some parents and teachers are trying to get out ahead of the decision to express concerns about continuing with the quadmester model this fall.
Under a quadmester model, secondary students had four semesters of two courses each, spending a full week of all-day classes in one subject and alternating with the second subject for the next week. Under the typical high school model, students have two semesters, four courses per semester and four different classes per day.
Joanne Pearson started a petition hoping to catch the attention of the provincial government and local school boards before they finalize their plans. The Change.org petition is currently sitting at close to 10,000 signatures.
“Last year, the quadmester system got them back to school. However, I think moving forward, when the plan is to have the province vaccinated by September, it’s hard to look at the kids and say, you’re stuck doing this all over again,” Pearson told MidlandToday.ca.
“I want to put the pressure on here so it doesn’t happen,” she said.
Quadmesters are currently used at both Midland high schools, Georgian Bay District Secondary School and St. Theresa's Catholic High School, while École secondaire Le Caron in Penetanguishene employs traditional semesters.
The Collingwood mom has two children who attend Collingwood Collegiate Institute, and one at Mountain View Elementary School. Her child who attends Mountain View is slated to start at CCI in September.
“With my kids, it’s been frustrating,” said Pearson. “I think everybody’s done the best they can in an emergency situation. However, school ends at 1:30 p.m. now. My kids have had math one week, then science the next week. There is a study hall there’s supposed to be a program for and be supervised, but what we’ve found is it doesn’t really exist.”
“I made my kids go, and they’re two of the very few,” she said, with a laugh. “I worry they’re losing out academically.”
Pearson’s other concern about the current school model is the social aspect. As students aren’t allowed to use lockers, there’s no longer any means by which to talk to other kids, or meet new kids and create relationships.
While officials from the province have said they plan to have everyone vaccinated by September, Pearson is curious as to why the back-to-school plan could essentially stay the same as last year, before vaccinations became available.
“Now that high-school-age kids are eligible, I can’t imagine why we would go backwards,” said Pearson. “There needs to be some hope for the kids, some sense of optimism that this isn’t going to be forever, because this is terrible.”
“If vaccinations aren’t the metric to get back to school, what is it that they’re waiting for? I think the school boards and the ministry owes everybody an answer as to what that is,” she said.
Bill Hewitt teaches Grade 9 and 10 technology at CCI, and has seen first-hand how many teens have dealt with the quadmester model this year.
From an education standpoint, Hewitt says the quadmester system presents some significant challenges. He says that in September, teachers were told to only teach about 70 per cent of the regular curriculum in a given course.
“You’re compressing the curriculum into an average of 24 days of instruction. Even when we’re in-class, they’re expected to do a lot on their own. The reality is, it’s just not happening,” he said.
“If a student falls behind, for them to get out from underneath the mountain of work we’re having to throw at them on a daily basis, it becomes really challenging, really fast,” said Hewitt. “It becomes almost insurmountable for them to catch up.”
While some students are faring well under the circumstances, Hewitt says he believes that by-and-large students aren’t getting as much of the experience of the class as they really deserve. With so many students struggling through this year, Hewitt also has concerns about what that will mean for their preparedness for next-grade courses starting in September, or those moving on to attend university or college.
“They are going to get absolutely blown out of the water. They will be so far behind from what would have happened in a normal semester,” he said.
He also says he worries about the mental health of students who are high-achievers who may put pressure on themselves to achieve high marks.
“They might be able to maintain a 90 per cent average, but the amount of pressure and stress they’re experiencing is enormous,” he said.
Hewitt thinks schools need to get back to a regular two-semester system as soon as possible.
“The intent of the quadmester model was to cohort and keep students together. That has been an abject failure because the reality is, the moment students leave the classroom and the doors of the school, they’re no longer only sitting with the 18 other kids they have in their class. They’re out socializing with their friends on the street, and that’s just teenagers being teenagers,” he said.
“There’s no such thing as a cohort. It doesn’t exist. Our system was designed to have a four-period day in a semester. We have one of the best education systems in the world. We need to get back to that,” said Hewitt.
Sarah Kekewich, communications manager with the Simcoe County District School Board, told MidlandToday.ca that, as of this week, board staff are still working on the secondary school model for the 2021/22 school year.
“A report will be shared with the board of trustees once the plans are finalized,” said Kekewich.
Pauline Stevenson, manager of communications with the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board, said there are a few options that are still on the table for September for their secondary students.
“We are hopeful that the vaccination availability for all students from Grade 7 to 12 will make a return to in-class learning a safe and viable option for the vast majority of our high-school students and we can return to a more typical school year,” said Stevenson. “At the secondary level some virtual learning and the possibility of a quadmester with two classes in each quad are options that are on the table.”
“We believe that the best place for the vast majority of our students is learning in face-to-face classrooms with their educators and peers,” she said.
You can find Pearson’s Change.org petition, online here.
