On Friday, August 21, Pembina Hills School Division sent out a poll seeking parents’ opinions and ideas about the Pembina Hills re-entry plans.
By Monday afternoon roughly 800 responses had been collected. By the end of the week we surpassed 1,000. Thank you for participation and comments.
The feedback from the first 800 responses to the poll contributed to the Board’s decision to postpone and stagger the first days of school for students.
Summary of Comments
The comments we received covered a wide range of opinions and ideas, including:
- Staff and student readiness
- Trust in others to be honest in the daily checks
- Ability of students to understand the new rules
- Schools’ ability to manage so many children in the spaces available
What’s Next?
We believe the delayed start and staggered entry will improve our readiness. The staggered entry will provide students and staff some time to learn the new rules and the required health measures. The extra time will allow schools to adjust routines and practices as needed.
Many of the other concerns came down to believing in everyone’s ability to manage the health measures.
Consider that people trust others every time they get in the car. Everyone trusts total strangers to stay between the yellow and white lines on highways all over the world.
We believe that this kind of trust can be extended to the health measures described in the division’s plan for re-entry to school. For instance, we all want to trust that families will complete the daily health check honestly everyday. People trusted school staff to provide the highest quality of care and teaching possible before COVID-19.
Pembina Hills staff are courageously resuming their roles as bus drivers, facilities and maintenance supports, technology supports, custodial, classroom supports and educators.
We are eager to help your children learn together. We will continue to engage with you while guiding your children through this societal change.
Thank you to everyone who participated in the poll. You can review the full question data here.