We are parents of a son who has opted for choosing the in-person learning format this fall in Richmond Green Secondary School. With the recent rises in Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, we have been monitoring new developments continuously. We attempt to monitor new information on regional news via mostly online resources.
However, recent school communication has gotten us pretty confused and frustrated which prompted me, admittedly, ranting about this here. I do hope to provide some constructive feedback, so let me set this up.
On October the 18th, we received the following form letter via an email from the principal.
From: Richmond Green SS xxxxx.yyyyyyy.zz@yrdsb.ca
Subject: COVID-19 Notice of exposure – Richmond Green Secondary School
Date: October 26, 2020 at 1:33 AM
To: xxxxxxxxx@gmail.comTo: xxxxxxxxx@gmail.com
Dear Parents & Guardians
Please find attached a notification from York Region Public Health. We ask that you please read the attached letter carefully as it contains important information regarding COVID-19.
Sincerely
X. YYYYYY
Principalemail: xxxxxx.yyyyy@yrdsb.ca
The attached notification PDF file is here. The last paragraph of the letter is:
If you have any questions or concerns, please visit york.ca/covid19 or contact York Region Public Health at 1-877-464-9675.
When you click on the above link, I had to do this (follow my navigation by viewing the video below):
So you can see from the above video, that it was not immediately apparent how to get to the information. It took some hunting and exploring. You almost wish that the link that they had will bring you directly to:
Life would be so much simpler!
If you are trying to access the york.ca/covid19 site on your mobile phone, then the user experience is worse than using a desktop browser.
I understand that they are trying to reuse their existing dashboard information, but frankly speaking this is just throwing data into a big pile and asking people to go to the pile and hunt for the relevant needle that you want, and call it job done.
On top of this, we got the exactly the same email yesterday on October 27th. I am sorry, but now we are being spammed by our schools without net added information, which simply causes more confusion. These guys are responsible for the education of our kids, and yet their form of communication and distributing information is second rate to industry norms. It is sad to see.
I want to be clear that I am criticizing the system and the process, and not laying any blame to the principal who may simply be a conduit in all of this. I know we are in a pandemic and we are all under stress. However, we can use this as an excuse, or we can use this opportunity to bring out the best in us.
Maybe I’m simply being too picky. Let me know what you think.
Update 2020-10-27 8:20PM:
Our York Region, Dave Barrow, has provided an alternative link york.ca/covid19data, which actually work so much better on my mobile phone.
I think the team must have modified something. Kudos to a team for a rapid response.
Totally Agree, man. Yrdsb was not ready completely for sept. Schooling, online or cohort. My kid is having trouble connectiong to one of 4 classes…missed a couple online classes already because proper link was not provided. All Summer, there was time to hire contract software developers to ready onlines, improve course selection and update all school websites; also, ensuring links work.
A portion of my property tax is directed to yrdsb for this. Is staffing sufficient? Premier of Ontario provided extra 50 million to assist on top of exhorbent education allocation…still we started 2 weeks late. Where is all the extra money going to? Are my kids being educated well enough, in prep. For university?