Classroom teachers with Prairie South School Division (PSSD) will not have to teach students in-person and online at the same time, and instead, will focus on the pupils in front of them.
The school division had considered livestreaming classroom lessons for students who decided to stay home this school year, with educators teaching and delivering activities simultaneously throughout the day. However, during the recent board of education meeting, trustees voted against that idea.
As part of a motion from trustee Tim McLeod, division administration can spend up to $1 million to hire or transfer educators to teach virtual lessons and deliver online instruction for students who are required or have chosen to stay home. Families will have a seven-day opportunity after school commences on Sept. 8 to decide whether to commit to online learning or in-person learning.
Also, for students who start in the classroom but become sick and go home, the classroom teacher will retain the responsibility to educate that child and deliver lesson plans.
The division believes up to 300 students could learn online this year, while there are already several teachers dedicated to PSSD’s virtual school.
Trustee discussion
Dedicating educators to teach virtually could be done in the most economical manner using current staff or hiring additional staff as required, McLeod said. He didn’t expect the entire $1 million to be necessary but wanted to ensure sufficient money was available to hire new teachers.
Money is available from the provincial and federal governments, while PSSD found savings after shutting down schools in the spring, he pointed out.
“A large number of our stakeholders have brought to our attention some concerns (about livestreaming of classroom instruction), and this is an acknowledgement of those concerns and attempt to address them,” said McLeod. “I am proposing with this motion that the classroom teachers would continue to teach in the manner in person that they traditionally have.”
McLeod added that this motion does not stop teachers from using different online learning platforms to educate students as they see fit.
Trustee Lew Young agreed, saying classroom teachers — and not trustees, division administration, or the education ministry — know best how to deal with the kids in their rooms. Furthermore, trustees are leaving the teaching to professionals who work daily with students and parents.
There is nobody alive today who has ever dealt with something such as a pandemic, said trustee Brian Swanson. He acknowledged that school boards and governments would likely make mistakes along the way until this crisis is over.
Swanson pointed out that the motion introduces a significant change to PSSD’s return-to-school plan since it is in response to one of the plan’s components. He also thought it was unacceptable that the board waited three months since its June meeting to discuss the plan, as he would have preferred to have reviewed and amended it weeks ago.
Trustees need to respect teachers’ concerns, not only with the use of online platforms, but also the pressures they face with the maintenance and composition of classrooms, the safety of classrooms and the anxieties they face, said trustee Jan Radwanski. The motion helps alleviate the concerns staff have about teaching within a platform, while it also helps address concerns parents have with what’s happening in the room.
Division administration agreed to provide a report to trustees at the October meeting about how this initiative fared.
