HALIFAX -- In 10 days, 150,000 teachers, students and staff will walk into a classroom in Nova Scotia for the first time since March.

It will be the largest and arguably most complex reopening the province has seen since the first COVID-19 case was reported and is being met with concern and criticism by parents and teachers who say they want answers to lingering questions they have.

Specifically, they want to know what happens if there is an outbreak of the virus at a school.

"What happens if a teacher becomes ill? What happens if one or two students in the classroom or in a school become ill? What are the actions that are going to happen?" said parent Stacey Rudderham.

"There's very vague and very overview answers to that but they don't really get into the specifics that parents are looking for. They want to know what happens if the child sitting next to mine goes home sick and three days later, it's announced that there's somebody in the school with COVID symptoms or with a positive COVID result."

Rudderham is a member of the group Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education. Thursday, the group joined forces with the Nova Scotia Teachers Union to express their concerns about the province’s current back-to-school plan.

"Nova Scotian parents can't adjust their entire lives because the government flips a switch with less than 24 hours' notice that now your kids are going to be home every other day, or they're going to be home full time. We have so many Nova Scotians that live at or below the poverty level that have no access to sick leave, that 14 days of unpaid leave at home is going to sink their families," said Paul Wozney, president of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union.

Parents like Rudderham say they want more communication from the government. The number one concern for the teachers union is physical distancing.

“I understand that our cases are low, that my individual risk right now is extremely low in those circumstances, but my concern is we're being told the second wave is definitely coming and I feel like I'm put in a position where when that wave comes, I'm being put in direct danger,” said Grade 9 teacher Melissa Noble.

Wozney is calling on Premier Stephen McNeil to use some of the $48 million given to the province by the federal government to procure additional space, so students can physically distance.

"Let me be clear, he needs to spend the money to keep our kids safe and he needs to do it today,” said Wozney.

"We keep talking about the link between the economy of Nova Scotia and the reopening of our public schools. We know that landlords, particularly of commercial and multi-use space, are hurting right now because they can't rent those spaces or they have tenants who can't cover their rent. Here's a golden opportunity for that money from Ottawa to pay bills of hurting landlords and business people to use those spaces."

The province’s education minister, Zach Churchill, says the money from the federal government will be used to hire more bus drivers and cleaners, as well as purchase more supplies.

"We also are going to use that money to ensure that every single student has access to technology, so in the event that we have to move to a blended learning model, where half of our kids are at home or an at-home learning model that our students have access to the technology they need,” said Churchill.

As for the current back-to-school plan, Dr. Andrew Lynx is one of the pediatricians that support it.

“We feel it’s a good plan, it’s a flexible plan. It’s based on best evidence and we feel that it is safe for kids to go back to school this fall,” he said.

"We feel, because of very low community spread right now that it's safe for kids to be in cohorts, that is their own little bubble in the classes and with masks from kids from Grades 4 upwards, we feel that's safe and reasonable and probably both optimizes safety and optimizes learning."

The first day of public school in Nova Scotia is set for Sept. 8.