By Ethan Ready

Back 2 School

Province begins optional return to in-class learning

Jun 1, 2020 | 4:03 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – As of today, public schools across the province welcomed back students as part of their optional part-time return to in-class learning.

On Saturday, Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry addressed the concern of parents in allowing their children to return with just one month remaining in the school year.

“We purposely timed the re-opening of schools to be sure that we had a period of time of an incubation period to see if we were going to start seeing an increase in numbers of cases in our communities once we started our restart program,” said Dr. Henry. “And if we had seen an increase then we would have postponed or delayed the start of schools. I am comfortable with what we’ve been watching that we are in a place where we can do this now.”

In Monday’s address, Dr. Henry stated that only one-third of the province’s student population returned to in-class schooling today.

For all schools in SD57, the student population is broken up over the course of the week. For K to Grade 5, two groups of students will be split over the week, one group being Monday and Tuesday, and the other being Thursday to Friday. For Grade 6 to 12, those groups will be broken up so schools sit at 20 per cent capacity, equating to one day a week for individual students.

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Wednesdays will serve as a day for teachers to focus on the continuity learning plans for students remaining at home.

“Having kids back is not only about the learning aspect of it, but it’s also a real boost to their mental health,” said SD57 Board Chair Tim Bennett. “There’s a lot of benefits of being back in the buildings, especially as we also look to support our more vulnerable learners, those kids that may need a little bit of extra support to graduate or be able to finish the class their working on.”

Bennett says while it may only be one month, he insists that it is a critical month for students.

Bennett admits the School Board is aware that some parents may still be hesitant in sending their kids back to schools amidst a pandemic.

“Today we welcomed a lot of students back into our buildings. We have a lot of families that have chosen not to send their children back for the month of June because their in really good rotations and routines at home, or they have their auto-immune, or they’re just not ready to send their kids back, but we do have families that are on the fence. If you do have questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to your school’s principal or your child’s teacher.”

If parents do want to send their child back, it’s asked that parents touch base with their school first so administration staff can properly manage student density within their facilities.