Medicine Hat Public School Division superintendent Mark Davidson provides an update to reporters Monday on how school boards are managing the COVID-19 epidemic, a day after schools were ordered to suspend classes indefinitely.--NEWS PHOTO JEREMY APPEL
jappel@medicinehatnews.com@MHNJeremyAppel
The local public school board hopes to have a framework in place by next week for how students can continue learning while physical classes are suspended indefinitely.
“We’re working with Alberta Education and other school jurisdictions within the province to build a framework for programming for the remainder of the year,” Medicine Hat Public School Division superintendent Mark Davidson told reporters.
The ministry is working with the Alberta Teachers Association and school boards to “build something of a structure for what programming might look like,” so it’s the same across the province, he added.
Matters are particularly complicated for Grade 12 students who still need to take their diploma exams, but Davidson expressed confidence that a solution will be found in due time.
“It will not be a one-size-fits-all solution for all of our kids,” he said.
The chief medical officer of health ordered the closing of all K-12 schools for classes at her Sunday press briefing, although teachers are still expected to attend if able.
“Staff are expected to work, but not necessarily at work in their traditional setting,” explained Davidson.
Davidson says it’s important that the new framework includes more than just online learning.
“That programming will include opportunities for face-to-face work with teachers in a controlled setting, meaning the number of students present and where they are in the classroom,” he said, acknowledging that some teachers may have to work from home due to self-quarantine.
There will undoubtedly be some “hiccups” along the way, Davidson said.
“We, as a school system, haven’t provided distributed learning, or blended learning, to over 7,000 students at once before, so we’re probably going to have a bit of re-tooling as we go,” he said.
The separate school board provided tips in their Monday update on the situation for parents speaking to their kids about the global pandemic.
The Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education recommends parents limit the amount of news their kids are exposed to, encourage their children to confide in them about their worries, tell them it’s normal to be worried and confused, re-assure them that they’re safe, encourage them to wash their hands, cover their coughs, eat healthy and get a lot of rest, and call loved ones over the phone or Skype, in addition to prayer.
MHCBE schools will co-ordinate with families on how students can pick up their belongings from Tuesday to Friday.
As for how the rest of the school year will work, the board says they will let families know once their plan is in place.
Prairie Rose School Division superintendent Roger Clarke said parents should have a sense of the “learning options” available to their kids for the rest of the year by Wednesday.
“We know that not everyone will have this same access, so we want to find out how we can continue to communicate and provide instruction no matter what your situation,” said Clarke. “As a division, we are committed to getting through this together.”
Administration from the Centre for Academic and Personal Excellence charter school has been keeping in touch with parents through emails and on its Facebook page.
According to a Monday evening Facebook post, term two report cards will be ready March 29, with “staggered pick-up times” to ensure parents don’t come to CAPE all at once.
“Programming for the duration of school closure will focus on core learning so that students have the necessary knowledge for the next grade,” it said. “There are many choices of how this learning can happen and we want to ensure that the decisions we make will have the greatest benefits to students and are also easily supported by parents.”
