Parents of students at a high school in Stittsville set to open this September are concerned with the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board’s decision to delay the opening and keep Grade 9 learning online at home.
Maplewood Secondary was supposed to open next week, but parents and students learned in an email Wednesday a contingency plan was being put in place.
The email told parents the contractor had indicated the school would be ready for Sept. 3, but based on a review “the number of outstanding safety issues strongly suggest that the building will likely fail the formal occupancy inspection this week.”
Students planning to attend grades 7 and 8 at Maplewood are instead starting their school year with adjusted hours at D. A. Moodie School, but Grade 9 students will be attending virtual classes online.
The school was an active construction zone on Thursday, with several workers and vehicles moving around the property.
‘I think we can do better’
Stittsville parent Kirsty Edwards has a son who was expecting to attend Maplewood for Grade 9.
She said there were indications and concerns based on the construction site the school would not be ready for September, but parents were reassured it would be open.
Then, last week, they were told a contingency plan would be coming into place.
“We’ve got an issue hearing about virtual learning. We don’t know what that looks like. We don’t know what the teachers are. We don’t know the setup at this point,” she said. “So the delay in my mind creates some additional anxiety.”
Her daughter is also being impacted because she will now begin her Grade 8 year at Moodie, with new bell times to accommodate busing schedules. School will now run 7:45 a.m. to 2:15 p.m., which is 15 minutes earlier than originally planned.
Edwards started a petition over the closure to create a dialogue with school authorities and the Ottawa-Carleton District School Board that had close to 200 signatures within one day of being launched.
“I fully recognize this is a complex problem. Logistics is an issue. Timing is an issue. There’s lots of unknowns,” she said “But the default solution of having grade nines doing their schooling virtually? I think we can do better.”
Online learning ‘not acceptable’
Edwards added there were concerns of absenteeism as some parents were talking about not sending their kids to school if it was happening online.
Edwards said many students struggled with online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and it should not be a default solution.
Jenny Guth, whose son was also set to attend Maplewood in September, said students doing an entire semester online is “not acceptable.”
“We did the virtual learning because of a global pandemic,” she said. “We didn’t do the virtual learning because a school wasn’t completed.”
She and other parents are concerned the timeline for when the school will open remains unclear. They are calling for more information on contingency plans for other school offerings such as sports and arts.
The school board denied requests for comment and instead pointed to its statement sent to parents.
“We apologize for the inconvenience and stress this may cause and appreciate your understanding and patience as we work to prevent further disruptions and prioritize the safety of our students and staff,” the letter says.