Early Learning Program educator Melanie Johnston works with students Anne Laube, Zander Smith, and Ridge Nabis, who will be attending kindergarten in the fall, during class on Wednesday morning at Vincent Massey School. Medicine Hat Public School Division will offer optional full-day kindergarten beginning in September at a cost of $250 per month. -- NEWS FILE PHOTO
mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker
The Medicine Hat Public School Division surveyed more than 3,000 people this summer to help create a back-to-school plan for this fall.
Of the 2,306 survey responses from parents and guardians, 61 per cent are very/somewhat comfortable with in-person classes on a full time basis – 35 per cent are very/somewhat uncomfortable. For part-time classes, 47 per cent are comfortable with in-person classes and 43 per cent are not comfortable.
Superintendent Mark Davidson says there weren’t many surprises from the survey results.
“The surprise for me was the similarities in the responses from parents and guardians, and their children,” he said. “Otherwise, nothing really caught us off guard in the surveys.”
Every registered family with the school board was emailed a survey and had a chance to voice their opinion. Teachers also chipped in with helping students get surveys.
The big safety measures students and parents wrote about are hand sanitizer availability and regular hand washing, enhanced cleaning protocols and stricter protocol when students or staff are sick.
“We need to build routines around sanitizing and cleaning,” said Davidson. “Regular hand washing and sanitizing when you leave and enter a classroom will be really emphasized by teachers.
“We will continue listening to the government to see if there’s more instruction coming.”
Less than 40 per cent of surveyed parents think it is important to have enhanced physical distancing protocols at public schools.
Of the parents and guardians surveyed, 52 per cent are very/somewhat uncomfortable with masks at school. Very/somewhat comfortable parents accounted for 28 per cent and 20 per cent were neutral on masks.
A total of 39 per cent of families rely on a school bus to get kids to school. Of those, 45 per cent are comfortable with students taking the bus – 28 per cent are uncomfortable. Students responded with 38 per cent comfortable with buses and 32 per cent uncomfortable.
“This is a really interesting time in education,” said Davidson. “We know teachers, parents and students want to get back into class and they want to get back into something close to normal. The key is doing that in the safest way possible, meaning we need to be careful and diligent.”
Another part of the survey where students and their guardians agreed was a dislike for online learning.
Of the students polled, 51 per cent said e-learning did not have a positive impact on their learning. Only 23 per cent felt it did.
Parents’ main concerns were relationship building in and out of the classroom, and the quality of learning.
Davidson says the public school board is now reaching out to families to find out exactly how many plan on having their children learn from home this year.
“We know there will be some families that choose to have their children learning from home,” he said. “We want to provide strong resources to families that don’t feel that scenario one is the right choice for their families.
“We’re going to be surveying families to get their intent for the upcoming year and to see if they will be taking advantage of the at-home learning opportunities.
“This will give us information on how to use our staff to help in-school and at home students.”
