School boards ready for increased volume of online learners

By MO CRANKER on November 26, 2020.

mcranker@medicinehatnews.com@mocranker

The province announced a public health emergency Tuesday and declared that students from Grades 7-12 would spend the rest of the calendar year learning from home.

All students in the province will begin their winter break on Dec. 18. All students will return from winter break for online classes in early January and in-person classes are set to resume on Jan. 11.

“We were not really made aware in advance of that announcement of what the decision might be,” said public division superintendent Mark Davidson. “We were all in a position of examining what we were hearing against the planning that we had already done. We feel good about the extensive planning we have done for all of the scenarios and had been communicating with families for the last month or so about how they might prepare for that possibility.”

The public division has 460 kids learning through its online hub this winter. Students who are now forced to learn from home will stay with their same classmates and teachers, just in a virtual format.

“It will be a more robust set of expectations around the time students commit to their programming,” said Davidson. “There will be significantly higher expectations (compared to last year’s online learning that started in March).

“We’ve been given no indication that students will just simply pass based on the grades they earned today, so students will need to invest in the work the teachers are providing”

One reason for sending some kids home, other than to stop the spread of COVID-19, was to give school systems a bit of a break heading into the new year.

Davidson says the public schools have had instances where a teacher couldn’t be found to work a classroom, but it has been rare.

“We’ve done fairly well with regard to the level of absence among our staff,” he said. “There have been few occasions where we have been unable to find a substitute teachers to fill absences.

“It has happened more often than in previous years, but definitely less often than we had feared before the year began.”

Davidson added that there have been instances where replacement bus drivers have been needed. Extra cleaning staff hired at the beginning of the school year have been able to fill in for sick custodial workers.

As for what is next for public schools, Davidson says planning for every scenario is key going forward to January.

“The education minister has said the plan is to return to school on Jan. 11, but there is much that can happen between now and then,” said Davidson. “We’re planning for everything and it’s why we put so much effort and detail into planning, and to communicating those plans with staff and community.”

Davidson thanked staff, students and families for all of the work that has been done so far during the school year.

MHCBE

Catholic School Board of Education superintendent Dwayne Zarichny says the board was not taken aback by the announcement.

“With the rise in cases around the province, it wasn’t very much of a surprise,” he said. “Looking at how the numbers were jumping, I think people were expecting some change in direction from the premiere and minister of education.”

The News reported earlier this fall that the Catholic board had more than 60 students learning virtually this semester, and Zarichny says the board is able to handle the increased online needs.

“Since last spring when we went online, we have worked with staff to offer them plenty of opportunities to enhance their skills around working at home,” said Zarichny. “We also took another PD day and gave it to teachers to get themselves ready to move back to an online format.

“We’re trying to give staff extra time to prepare.”

All teachers who would normally be in class with the Grade 7-12 students will shift online for the time being.

Zarichny says students will not be able to coast to the winter break, or after it.

“For the most part, the learning will be normal,” he said. “We expect the same level of rigour and the same level of work to be done by students.

“We want students to be picking up where they left off in January, and for their to be minimal or no disruptions in learning at all.”

As for staffing, Zarichny says things have gone well considering circumstances.

“Up until a few days ago, we hadn’t had an incident of COVID at a school,” said Zarichny. “We’ve been relying on the normal trends using substitute teachers and haven’t really had any trouble.”

As for transportation and custodial staff, there has been little to no trouble for MHCBE’s staffing.

Zarichny says he is proud of the work that has been done by everyone this school year.

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