The first two weeks of school have presented numerous challenges for school staff, according to the president of the Yukon Teachers’ Association.

In an interview with the Star on Friday afternoon, Ted Hupé explained that teachers are struggling to instill safe COVID-19 practices in young students. 

“What is emerging is that we cannot provide enough physical distancing to meet the medical officer of health’s guideline of two metres,” Hupé said.

Young children naturally gravitate toward each other outside of desk time, like at lunch or in between classes, Hupé explained.

“This is causing a lot of angst, because right now we don’t have cases but when we do, we’re not necessarily doing what we should be doing, because we can’t, really.”

Classrooms have been set up to maintain safe distances among students, but the “real-world traffic patterns” of students are presenting challenges, Hupé said.

Kyle Nightingale, a Department of Education spokesperson, told the Star in an email that this challenge was accounted for in school safety guidelines.

“Regarding physical distancing, the health and safety guidelines for K-12 school settings indicate physical distancing may not always be possible with children and in some cases, is not developmentally appropriate,” Nightingale said in an email this morning.

Other measures are suggested for schools when physical distancing can’t be maintained: frequent hand-washing, enhanced cleaning and minimizing physical contact.

Staff are also instructed to keep groups of students together and limit mixing between groups.

Students and staff are instructed to stay at home when sick or experiencing any symptoms including fever, headache, chills, loss of taste or smell, cough, runny nose, fatigue, loss of appetite, shortness of breath, sore throat, muscle aches, diarrhea, nausea or vomiting.

Pre-existing conditions don’t apply, Nightingale noted. For example, a child with asthma who has a cough can continue going to school.

Hupé said the strict rules for staying home caused a high number of student and staff absences in the first week of school.

“That ripple effect is being felt already,” Hupé said.

“We’ve had teachers who have had to go home because their kids are sick, and they’re being told they can’t work from home.”

There were nine staff absences from one Whitehorse school on Friday.

“Not all of them were COVID-related, but it goes to show, we’re going to be in a real bind because they could only get two TOC’s (teachers-on-call).”

Hupé said teachers and administrators are preparing for “a lot of issues” related to the absences.

“If we’re expected to do that, fine, but we need back-up supports,” Hupé said.

“We need more TOCs, but here’s a big issue: our system is going to grind to a halt if we don’t come up with a way of adapting when workers are being sent home because of their kids.”

Establishing a system that allows some school staff to work remotely when required is pivotal, the president explained.

“We need to be adaptable and try to find some middle ground, in which we can get production out of these educational employees because work’s not going to happen; that’s my fear,” Hupé said.

Last week, the federal government announced that the Yukon would receive $4.16 million for school reopenings. It was part of a larger federal package divided amongst the provinces and territories.

Hupé said there has been “no direction” about the money since it was announced last Wednesday, but the Department of Education likely has mounting operational costs to reckon with.

“The department did not identify any real money prior to this announcement (for COVID-19 adjustments), they were going to try to operate within their normal budget, but we know extra money was spent,” Hupé said.

Providing schools with hand sanitizer, masks and other supplies for safe classrooms were all expenditures outside what was budgeted.

There has also been a cleaning supply shortage in the schools, though Hupé noted that some supplies were delivered last week.

Hupé said meetings between the YTA and Education department have been ongoing.

“All of the discussion is about getting our schools up and running and operating as efficiently and as normally as possible,” Hupé said.