The second wave of the pandemic now has a date.  The beginning of the school year.

“The Alberta government is targeting a return to “near-normal” conditions with students returning to classrooms across the province for the beginning of the 2020-21 school year, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange says.

“Our goal is to get us back to normal learning as soon as possible,” LaGrange said Wednesday at news conference. “We are targeting a return to new-normal operations with some health measures in place.”

LaGrange laid out three scenarios that have been part of the planning for weeks now.

The first scenario would see near-normal operations resume with students returning to daily in-school classes with some health measures…”

Wow.  We’re just gonna throw the kids back into the mix.

“Jason Schilling, president of the Alberta Teachers’ Association, said there are outstanding questions about safety.

“If you have a look at staffing as well, as teachers can’t spend the day cleaning their classrooms because they’ll be busy teaching, and if we have students that are in cohorts that are expected to be socially distanced, how is that going to work in some of our classrooms where we have 30 or 40 students? And are they going to split those grades and then hire more teachers?” he said.

“Unbelievable to me that we would move forward on a plan to restart school without making sure that it is adequately funded and that everything that needs to be in place for students, teachers and staff and the broader community, for that matter, are safe.”

Oh, and masks won’t be mandatory.

“LaGrange says wearing masks to school will not be mandated for either staff or students.

“From what Dr. [Deena] Hinshaw has been advising us, the data shows that particularly in young children that it is not something that is required.”

Students or staff who choose to wear a mask may do so, but there is no standalone funding for this type of thing.”

Yep.  Looking forward to the second wave.

 

Source cbc.ca: 1 – 2.