‘COVID Taught Us a Lot about Priorities’

Robin Liu Hopson, PhD, is the Director of Policy and Research at People for Education. She holds a PhD in Curriculum, Teaching, and Learning from OISE/UT, an MA in French Literature from McMaster University, a BEd from OISE/UT, and a BA&Sc from McMaster University.

Jasmine HodsonBautista is a Research Analyst at People for Education. She holds an MA in Educational Leadership and Policy from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, a BA in Sexual Diversity Studies from the University of Toronto, and a BFA in Film Production from York University.

BY ROBIN LIU HOPSON AND JASMINE HODGSON-BAUTISTA

“Ongoing staffing challenges, lack of daily staff supports for post-pandemic recovery, daily bus cancellations, lack of system navigation and social work for all families, and a focus on ‘catching up’ when massive structural issues continue to be major challenges. The idea that we are ‘back to normal’ seems to reign, yet every day is a challenge for staff and families. This places incredible pressure on administrators and staff who consistently attend work, further burning out essential staff. With labour challenges at the forefront and possible strikes, it remains unseen how much more the system can bear.” – Elementary school principal, Northern Ont.

THE START of the 2022-23 school year was the closest to normal that students, families, and educators have experienced since September 2019 – but how are schools, educators, and students really doing? Three years into the COVID-19 pandemic, the newest findings from People for Education’s Annual Ontario School Survey (AOSS) provide valuable insights. This article will focus primarily on the data collected from the 2022-23 AOSS,1 which received responses from 1,044 principals across all 72 publicly funded school boards in the province.

When the pandemic first shut down schools in March 2020, the list of challenges that emerged seemed end- less. There now exists a substantial body of research documenting how the relentless pivoting between no school, virtual school, hybrid school, and eventually inperson school triggered a domino effect of issues that included families troubleshooting technology, juggling remote learning and work, and navigating perpetually evolving health and safety protocols (People for Education, 2021a). None of us had ever gone through a global pandemic before, so it was natural to be focused on the logistics of COVID-19: monitoring positive case counts, screening tools, social distancing, and never leaving the house without a mask – or at all. In the meantime, people’s mental health and wellbeing were progressively being impacted by feelings of anxiety, isolation, or depression, to name just a few (Vaillancourt et al., 2021).

The first AOSS conducted after the arrival of COVID-19 immediately shone a light on the toll that the pandemic had taken, specifically on the wellbeing of school principals. More than half of the 1,173 principals who responded during the 2020-21 school year disagreed or strongly disagreed that their levels of stress felt manageable (People for Education, 2021b). This same finding occurred in the following 2021-22 school year, along with principals’ concerns about the mental health and wellbeing of students and staff (People for Education, 2022). At this point in time, principals’ perceptions about the availability of