Hanover principals mull school reopening challenges

WESTERN BUREAU:

Principals in Hanover have raised concerns that the configuration of school plants may hamstring attempts to conform to COVID-19 health protocols, with six-foot social-distancing stipulations the biggest challenge for the start of the 2020-2021 academic year in September.

Jasmin Johnson, the principal of Bethel Primary School, told The Gleaner that the concerns in Hanover were not unique to that parish as many schools across the island were facing similar problems.

“It is going to be like a trial and error, and it is the students who will be disadvantaged in the trial and error no matter how you take it,” said Johnson.

With more than 600 students on roll, Johnson disclosed that the adjustments would slash classroom capacity by 50 per cent.

“I can only accommodate 314,” said Johnson. “I have a problem, but what I have done, I try to use up the auditorium, and I got five classes out of the auditorium.

“If I use the auditorium, use the library, and I use all the classrooms, I will need four more teachers,” said Johnson.

Johnson said that she has forwarded her assessment, along with proposals and recommendations, to the Ministry of Education and the school’s board of governors.

Fania Davis, principal of Watford Hill Primary, said that space availability was also a major concern as the infrastructure at her school would make adherence to social-distancing protocols problematic.

“We just do not have enough space for our students ... ,” said Davis. “We are looking at using up other spaces such as the library and any other space available outside of the regular classrooms.”

The Watford Hill principal is also considering staggering sessions with a shift system, but that would present a new challenge: getting more teachers.

Davis is uncertain whether parents will be more comfortable sending their children back to school in September if the pandemic drags on.

Nadine Crossman, principal of Mount Peto Primary and parish association chairman of the Jamaica Teachers’ Association, said that her school was currently engaged in logistical planning.

“Right now, most of the school administrators are heads down and really grappling and trying to sort out as to what it is that we will have to do differently,” said Crossman.

Crossman said that principals would have to be creative in the deployment of janitorial staff and in carving out spaces for handwashing stations, isolation areas, and nursing stations.

“It is really overwhelming, but we will have to bite the elephant in small pieces and put it as part of a whole plan,” said Crossman.