Photo by Whitehorse Star
Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee
Full-time classes ruled out for senior students
Grades 10 to 12 students will remain on a half-time schedule for the remainder of the school year, according to Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.
Grades 10 to 12 students will remain on a half-time schedule for the remainder of the school year, according to Education Minister Tracy-Anne McPhee.
“Our current programming is the best way to ensure we can provide course options and individualized timetables,” McPhee said Tuesday morning during the weekly COVID-19 briefing.
“We know this is working for some students, and is very challenging for others.”
The Department of Education has committed funds toward supporting students struggling with part-time classes.
McPhee said students can expect additional staffing, study skills and success coaching, tutoring options, more online tools, larger study hall capacity and expanded class time for students who need it.
Grades 10 to 12 students were moved to a half-day schedule this academic year to minimize the number of students in school buildings and enable safe spacing.
The department has been exploring options for returning Grades 10 to 12 students to full-time, and found it won’t be possible under current safety guidelines.
“To accomplish Grades 10 to 12 students full-time would require multiple off-site locations or at least three satellite-style high schools … this is simply not feasible,” McPhee said.
Returning 900 students to full-time classes would require 35 to 60 additional staff members to teach at satellite schools. McPhee explained that those staffing numbers aren’t available.
Additionally, satellite schools may not meet the needs of an effective learning environment, and would result in the elimination of some electives and course options.
“As a result of these considerations, we have determined that Grades 10 to 12 students will remain on their current schedule for the remainder of the school year with additional supports to ensure all students are successful with the blended learning models,” McPhee said.
McPhee also announced that Music, Arts and Drama (MAD) students will return to the Black Box Theatre at the Wood Street Centre “as soon as possible.”
MAD students have been taking classes at Porter Creek Secondary School. Grade 8 students have been attending school at Wood Street Centre.
Porter Creek has been decried by MAD students as insufficient because the classroom is too small, and students are bullied by the greater student population.
Grade 8 students will remain at the Wood Street Centre when MAD students return to the theatre.
McPhee said her department found the theatre wasn’t being used to its full capacity by the Grade 8 students, meaning there is space for MAD and Grade 8 students to co-exist in the building.
The Yukon was granted $4.6 million in federal funds toward schools restarting with COVID-19 guidelines.
McPhee said Tuesday the department has now spent or committed to spending $3 million of that fund.
About $700,000 has been spent on sanitization, custodians and safety training for staff.
Just over $1 million was spent on adapting programs, moving classes or students and special services.
About $900,000 was spent on additional support for students – trauma-informed instruction, virtual study halls and enhanced student support services.
Just under $100,000 was spent on technology and flexible learning.
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Comments (23)
Up 1 Down 0
Yes seriously on Nov 16, 2020 at 8:13 pm
If someone was say, already a big donor to one of the opposition political parties and was also planning to run in the next election BEFORE the issue of 'half days in person' occurred than yeah I think its really underhanded if they aren't upfront with the group they are involved with. People deserve to know if they are being used to advance someone's political ambitions. If they aren't made aware, then they are being taken advantage of.
On the other hand, if someone wasn't really involved politically prior to this happening and just became motivated as a result of these decisions, then of course that is legitimate and genuine.
The list of donors to political parties over the past few years will confirm which is the case. Assuming that those group leaders do actually run.
And no, they would not make good cabinet ministers. They are too entitled and already making mountains out of molehills on this issue so it's safe to assume they would do the same if they were a minister which would be disastrous for everyone.
Up 0 Down 0
Andy on Nov 16, 2020 at 5:14 pm
@ Riverdale
Your xenophobia is showing.
Let’s back up a bit. In places when the population is low it costs more to deliver services (per person). That includes things like roads, schools, hospitals etc. You could argue that 3 hospitals in the Yukon for 40,000 souls is a huge waste of tax dollars but only an uneducated rube would say that. We’re Canadians, we all deserve the same level of healthcare and education that one would receive in the provinces.
Here’s where the disconnect is for you. Canada is a bilingual nation. Coast to coast to coast. Governments are legally bound under the charter to deliver services in BOTH official languages. That includes Education.
That French school would be built if there was 1 French kid here or a million. See what I’m saying?
I’m uni-lingual but my kids did French immersions here k-12 because their parents understand the value of having a second language. More than just a parlour trick or a convenience when travelling, learning a second language makes a brain more malleable, more receptive to learning other concepts outside of language (hint hint).
The French community here is large, strong and growing. Just like the Filipino community who without the governments propping up their culture have thrived just from their work ethic and sense of community.
Now, you can spend the rest of your days shunning others or embrace the amazing gift of multiculturalism that exists in Canada and nowhere else.
Up 3 Down 4
Seriously Miles Canyon? on Nov 16, 2020 at 2:45 pm
Seriously??? What a crappy thing to say. These Liberal schmucks are now putting down members of the public? Seriously, I hope all these concerned parents make their minds up to take a run at this crappy government. I hope when they do so, they do it for a party where they can affect change. Because this government is done. So what if they run? I think at least the one would make a damn good cabinet minister.
Up 13 Down 0
Miles Canyon Dispatch on Nov 15, 2020 at 11:11 pm
Word on the street is that 2 of the people organizing these "concerned" outrage groups are doing this more or less to build up their name to run in the upcoming territorial election.
The proof will be in the pudding as they say. If some of the organizers do step forward to run, it will confirm that they were using these groups of outraged parents for their own political gain all along. If they don't run in the election, then I was wrong and it shows they likely didn't have a hidden agenda here.
I do hope my sources were wrong and that people wouldn't stoop that low, especially during a time when everyone is trying to deal with the coronavirus.
Up 11 Down 2
EJ on Nov 15, 2020 at 10:45 pm
This is just another example of Yukon entitlement. Parents and teachers across the country are dealing with similar and often worse circumstances than this. Half days in person are not the end of the world by any means - things could be a lot worse.
Harsh truth is that if your kid can't handle this inconvenience, they were going to be doomed at university/college anyway.
So how about you people organizing these whiny groups and inflaming the whole situation, just put on your big boy or girl pants and check your uniquely Yukon privilege?
Up 6 Down 2
Unfeckingbelievable! on Nov 15, 2020 at 11:24 am
Hello Josey - I agree with much of what you said. We really have come to a place in time where the balance of collective power has shifted further along the continuum to somewhere between stupid and ridiculously-stupid.
The safe-spacers are imposing a regime of civil-terrorism in which thought itself has become the dominion of a radical oligarchy intent on the establishment of regulatory control through the administration of a system of identity politics in which you are no longer you... The parallels between the current political tenor and that of the World War II era are unmistakable... The Aryan justifications of the time were not acceptable then and they're similar thinking should be tolerated now! But here we are constructing the social equivalent of the death camps - you’re cancelled!
It is unfortunate that the modern-day hatred cannot be seen through the lens that it deserves to be seen through by virtue of the intolerance that we have imposed on certain ascribed racial traits. Modern day gulags are being socially constructed on the basis of a contempt and hate that millions of people manned the fronts, and stormed the beaches to eradicate because it was “evil”.
Now, because so many people have lost the ability to think and engage in deliberate thought the want to think is seen as irresponsible... This is of course taking place in the context of a general disregard for the past and what it means for the future to disregard it...
The movie “Idiocracy” was a kick at modern society not an attempt to kickstart a modern society - FFS!
Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has been killed:
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Stop racism and prejudice - End the assault of identity politics - This was the true harm imposed by the politics of hate - Racial identity matters, culture is prescriptive...
Up 8 Down 7
Josey Wales on Nov 15, 2020 at 6:49 am
So "some" kids stay in school, and "some" do not as per our Overlords of logic.
I say those that do not will be better for it, at least a few months off the Marxist indoctrination.
The Marxists plan of divide and conquer, with our help and cooperation...is moving along very well.
given what I see each day, in this alleged first world, with alleged freedoms.
All those ships & boats, the aluminum overcast and those brave kids that "gave all" for our freedom June 06, 1944...should just done a 180...found a safe space where they could hide in delusion and not even bother getting their feet wet, dirty or pretending.
Pretending we would always remember...so, so many have done just opposite that...forgot.
Now? We embrace the classification of our citizens, some are off the charts so special that none of our western laws apply.
Until they teach the actual real world as it is, not merely perceived by teachers unions and the many Marxist sycophants that infect said union...they are just indoctrination centers. The longer your kids stay outta those caustic halls, the better off they will be.
Oh yeah...Trump is still the POTUS...till the courts sort the gaslighting.
Haters, Josey spoke out against "teachers" "unions" and the cultural elite.
grab your pitchforks, gather the blue hair keyboard warriors and attack a dissenter.
Up 10 Down 2
one day a week for full time students on Nov 14, 2020 at 5:43 pm
That should be enough to prepare them for a job as a minister in the Yukon Government.
*ba dum tiss*
Up 17 Down 6
Jean on Nov 14, 2020 at 8:55 am
@ BNR..check the fn budgets ( those you can access) and you will soon realize FN’s have tons of public money and could easily build a new school if it was a priority.
Up 15 Down 2
BnR on Nov 13, 2020 at 2:39 pm
So if the same cost rationale was applied to the new French school, at $79,000 per student, the new school should have been designed to teach ~ 443 students. Wouldn't that have been great for ALL kids?
Or better yet, what about something to replace Elijah Smith so our First Nations kids could get a quality education?
But the new school has an atrium and a radio station for everyone to use. LOL, wonder how that's going to work out eh?
Up 9 Down 2
Riverdale on Nov 13, 2020 at 2:04 pm
Jean, I think your comment speaks for itself.
It's all Federal dollars, just your kids get more of them. Well done.
You proved my point.
Up 16 Down 0
Herskowitz on Nov 13, 2020 at 1:39 am
@riverdale - Try being in a "foreign" community like old crow. Banging our head against the "department of education's" stonewall. They're absolutely irresponsible and ignorant. There needs to be an external panel review over the lot of them.
Up 7 Down 16
Jean on Nov 12, 2020 at 7:47 pm
@riverdale... nice math, the franco school also has spaces for a multi-purpose rooms a community radio station, a community kitchen and an atrium to host a variety of activities and events for everyone. Why so bitter? It's all federal dollars, we are a welfare state, be thankful.
Up 20 Down 10
Adam Smith on Nov 12, 2020 at 7:13 pm
I think the Liberals made a big mistake with their handling of schools during the pandemic. But on the plus side, they have pretty much guaranteed a return to Yukon Party government in the next election. I for one have had enough of their progressive and environmental BS over the past 4 years. Time for a return to good old fashioned conservative governance!
Up 46 Down 4
Riverdale on Nov 12, 2020 at 7:07 am
The new French only school cost 35 million. At its design capacity of 150, that’s approx. $230,000 per student. It has 85 enrolled for this year so they’re at $400,000 each.
FH Collins cost 54 million and is designed for 700 and is at 683 students or $79,000 per student.
FH Collins students (and others) can only attend half time due to safe spacing issues.
So your kids get a half time education, but students enrolled at the new Riverdale French language school get full time education.
At the very least, move the 249 French immersion students from FHC into the new school so ALL students get a break.
Up 31 Down 8
Matthew on Nov 12, 2020 at 5:36 am
Returning 900 students to full-time classes would require 35 to 60 additional staff members to teach at satellite schools. McPhee explained that those staffing numbers aren’t available.
Oh.. where did the teachers go that were here last year then? Yukon is a MESS! Take a look at everything, nothing makes sense as the only winners here are government officials with their hefty pay cheques getting brand new swanky buildings while the rest of us struggle to find a place to rent under $2000!
Up 18 Down 3
Nathan Living on Nov 11, 2020 at 11:12 pm
To be fair the government will be heavily criticized regardless of what their plan of action is.
Covid risk in schools is very low but they could of course be carriers if they are infected.
Based on what I have read, the teachers may be a welcome diversion for students who have combative parents who have an antipathy for the minister of education and government workers.
Up 28 Down 17
Yukoner32 on Nov 11, 2020 at 8:08 pm
The Liberal Government just doesn't get it. They keep listening to the supposedly professional bureaucrats in the department of Education as well as Dr.Hanley.
We need a government who will listen to parents instead of those elites. We need a return to Yukon Party government and rule by Populism! For this reason I will be changing my vote from Liberal to YP. (I don't consider the NDP anymore since they have become more of a fringe protest party)
Up 42 Down 6
Stew Potts on Nov 11, 2020 at 12:06 pm
WTF? Trauma informed instruction? Does this mean that the government is going to expand its method of operation outside of the governmental system per se and start traumatizing children now too... The children will be fully trained to become adult employees of the government who are fully traumatized and trauma-trained to become fearful minions of the state scurrying from one dictate to the next never really able to think about what they are doing and why.
More literally than figuratively government is trauma and operates on the principle of fear because no sane person could willingly exist in such a toxic-stew, always on a slow simmer...
Up 36 Down 6
Common sense by the wayside on Nov 11, 2020 at 10:24 am
So in the government update, Hanley is making mask use in all schools mandatory (except in classrooms) even though all schools haven't been doing that. He's saying students don't have to be socially distanced in class, thereby allowing classes to be jam packed which is way more dangerous for COVID. Let's put a large group of people together in one room and hope for the best, no distancing! Upwards of 25-30 students per class esp when schools decide they just need to add in one or two over the legal 28 limit for 8/9.
McPhee now suddenly announces that MAD is moved back to Wood St.- no indication that this was coming at all! Are the grade 8's going back to F.H. Collins next year? Hope so or I can foresee parents not wanting their children at Wood St. as it is not equipped to give students high school opportunities (like woods, foods, textiles etc.), no gymnasium and a downtown location impractical for such a young age group to be wandering around.
Opposition needs to survey parents and teachers, make a report and present it at the legislature since this party is not listening or being accountable. An election can't come soon enough. Let's get some common sense in these important decisions and some people who know what they are doing. M and M clearly don't.
Up 44 Down 7
Annoyedparent on Nov 10, 2020 at 10:47 pm
I find most of what has been done for students is ill planned and not in the best interests of the students and staff of schools. We seem to be in a routine of make big mistakes then try to fix those mistakes (relocating students and trying to limit class sizes).
More consultation needs to be given to the actual educators and parents of students versus the bandaid approach of McPhee. She seems to make promises before consulting or seeking advisement of what will actually work.
Up 74 Down 4
Parent on Nov 10, 2020 at 3:54 pm
The new French school in Riverdale is opening up this week with 85 students.
It was designed for 150, but its got 85. Let that sink in.
Thats barely 3 full classes for grades 7-12. And yet all the other schools can't maintain 2 meters spacing.
Want to see a entitlement personified? Drive into Riverdale.
Parents in Whitehorse should be absolutely livid!
Up 51 Down 25
FrozenYukoner on Nov 10, 2020 at 3:02 pm
Thanks Minister McPhee. True leadership shines through yet again from you. (that's sarcasm, in case it didn't come across)