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Over the past two days, Cherisse Halsall spoke to two principals who told her that ticking off GOB's checklist requires a ton of resources. Here's her story:

It's back to school on August 10th. And while some parents would agree with this sentiment:

Mrs. Pamela Baird, Vice-Principal
"I have two small girls at home and they are driving me crazy and just for that one reason they need to be back in school. And secondly, they don't want to hear from us, they want to see their teachers, come on parents I know you know what I'm talking about. They don't want to hear from you they don't even want to hear from a tutor right now they want to be in the classroom, they want to be in that school environment they want to be around their teacher."

Others are much more apprehensive, this morning in a press conference the Prime Minister endorsed the opening, but acknowledged widespread changes:

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister Of Belize
"You won't have three children sitting on one bench at one desk. Additional desks are being put in place and each child will have his or her individual seat."

But that's not true at every school, Belize City's Wesley lower school, for example, has gone to great lengths even assigning alternate exits and entrances by classroom so as to avoid crowding. But they've yet to receive an adequate number or armchairs and so have been forced to improvise.

Mrs. Pamela Baird, Vice-Principal
"We decided to do the dividers in the infant's division but again it costs a lot of money. It's thirty dollars for each one of those. The Ministry of education did a walkthrough here on July 21st and we definitely are not ready. So we are appealing to the public out there, we are strapped for cash right now the immediate needs of the school right now would be the hand wash basins that we need throughout the compound. We need 9 of them 2 at the pre-school and 7 at the lower school, we are also in need of 260 armchairs to accommodate our students at the infant level and throughout the school. For sanitization for proper sanitization they are requesting that we have these wash hand basins throughout the compound. They don't want to see them in the classroom we need to have them throughout the compound."

The good news is that those handwashing stations may be on their way.

Dean Barrow, Prime Minister Of Belize
"One of the things still outstanding is the need for the washbasins, for the installation of washbasins, I've promised the Ministry that the FS will try to work some of his usual magic with his bag of tricks which the bag is getting rather empty but still we'll have to find the money because you are so correct in pointing out these issues and making clear that the onus is on the government not just to say schools are opening but to demonstrate that we are doing all we can to make that reopening as safe as possible."

Another school that's doing its best for the safest possible reopening is Queen Square Anglican. We stopped by yesterday to look in on their preparatory parent-teacher meeting.

Bernadine Conorquie, Principal, Queen Square Anglican School
"Presently we're having our PTA meeting to inform parents of what are the protocols and procedures of the reopening of Queen Square Anglican school. We have made a PowerPoint presentation for them and also a booklet that they can take home to become a little more familiar with some of the changes that are going to happen."

"If you look around here you're going to see that the classrooms are rearranged for the three feet social distancing. Most of the classrooms will be painted so that students will need to maintain what you call like a box which will be their area."

But what happens when they get out of that box? Say, when they go to recess?

Mrs. Pamela Baird, Vice-Principal
"The best we can do is depend on our teachers in the classroom to be looking at them, you know to sensitize them. You know, parents, we want to ask you, talk to your children, let them know before they come in what the rules are and what the new normal is going to be like. They cannot interact with each other like before even when it's break time we need to have heavy monitoring out there with them to make sure that they are social distancing from each other and they are not hugging and you know, you know it's gonna be a very very hard task to do but we hope to do our best."

Bernadine Conorquie, Principal, Queen Square Anglican School
"They have to maintain the social distancing they are kids and you know they want to be able to interact as much as possible but we will have to go through routines and procedures to instill in them that when they come out there are certain areas that they are allowed to go certain areas they are not allowed to go, they have to maintain the social distancing with their peers, they have to keep washing their hands, they have to wear their masks if they're allowed to wear their masks because infant I and infant II will not be allowed to wear their masks."

And while these schools strive to adhere to GOB's long list of guidelines. We have to wonder how much protection it offers once the airport opens.

Bernadine Conorquie, Principal, Queen Square Anglican School
"If for example if we have let's say for example we have an outbreak we have another case, we will definitely have to look at our learning recovery, we have to look at our learning continuity plan of how students are going to be getting the lessons if they're at home and so we have protocols in place for that."

If you'd like to make a donation toward Wesley Lower School's much-needed resources you can contact the Principal at 631-0765 of the Vice-Principal at 615-0214.