HALIFAX -- With a number of schools in the Halifax Regional Municipality shut down because of COVID, many parents are left scrambling.
"To say it's an inconvenience is a bit of an understatement," said father of two Logan Delaney. "My personal situation it's a matter of picking whether it's my wife or I that stay home and how do you navigate that with your employer?"
Two of Vanessa Budrow’s three children are impacted by the school closures.
"I'm a single mom of three and I'm self-employed," she said. "Now that there's no school, thankfully I have my mother-in-law down here. She came here right before the borders closed, so she was able to get down here just in time and now she's here taking care of the kids. Otherwise, I am not sure what I would do."
"I came just basically just so they'd have some family for a couple of weeks and yesterday with the announcement, that's going to extend my time because I'll have to stay and look after the children and help out for a little bit longer," said grandmother Michelle Budrow.
Even local politicians are trying to navigate the shutdown, like Nova Scotia NDP MLA Claudia Chender, who is working from home with her three children.
"For some it's an inconvenience," Chender said. "So, myself and my husband, we have the capacity to work from home and we have a home to work from, we have flexibility, but not only is that not the case for a lot of people just in terms of security and housing, it's also not the case for essential workers."
Thursday afternoon, government announced they were closing a number of schools and moving to at-home learning for a two-week period.
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is questioning the decision to close some families of schools in the Dartmouth area but not others.
"If we know that community spread is interspersed right throughout the community of Dartmouth we really question the wisdom of not closing the Prince Andrew family of schools," said NSTU president Paul Wozney.
Parent Kelly Cahill is also questioning that decision.
"My son is part of the Prince Andrew family of schools and its remaining open even though there is a confirmed case of COVID at one of the feeder schools which is Mount Edward Elementary," she said.
The increasing number of COVID cases is concerning for many teachers still in the classroom.
"As I was coming in the building this morning teachers are on edge. I'm in school today and there are a number of cases in around our school in the community and teachers are nervous about why we're in school," said middle school teacher Crystal Isert.
