Divisions ready, excited for students’ return

By KELLEN TANIGUCHI on May 21, 2021.

ktaniguchi@medicinehatnews.com@@kellentaniguchi

K-12 students will be returning to the classroom Tuesday and local school divisions are excited to have teachers and students back communicating face to face.

The latest COVID-19 restrictions forced schools across the province to shift to online learning, but the province says most schools will return to in-person learning Tuesday.

“We are excited and happy to have our kids back in school and to getting back to more normal in terms of how we operate and of course we serve our kids best when they’re with us, so we’re quite excited about having them back,” said Roger Clarke, superintendent for Prairie Rose Public Schools.

“Staff become teachers or choose to work in schools because they like to be with people, they like to be present for students and we know that is the way most students learn best,” said Mark Davidson, superintendent for Medicine Hat Public School Division. “We’re all pleased to be returning to face-to-face learning. We carry with us a bit of concern about the challenges that we face in terms of trying to mitigate the virus and having to respond when large numbers of people quarantine.”

Clarke says he knows they will have COVID-19 cases at the schools because they’ve had them in the past, and they will continue to have them until COVID is in the rear-view mirror. However, he is optimistic with case numbers going down in the province and the number of people getting vaccinated, including some students, he’s hopeful there will be fewer cases at schools.

Dwayne Zarichny, superintendent for the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education, says the division is also excited to see students and staff in the hallways. He adds the division’s concerns were not due to overall safety of its students, but the number of staff in quarantine and the lack of available substitute teachers to fill those roles.

“We’re hoping the pause that the government brought forward provincially … will mitigate the number of cases that we see in our schools and hopefully that should reduce the demand of substitute teachers in the division,” said Zarichny.

The superintendents all say the staff and students they have spoken with are excited to be returning to school next week and they know most students learn best in person. Davidson says all protocols that were in place before the latest shift to online learning will remain in place for the return to in-person learning.

“Everything that we’ve been doing before, we have received no changes in the protocols we are to use. So, we’re maintaining all of those things from stepped up cleaning practices, to real attention to respiratory hygiene, hand hygiene, masking, all of those things remain a priority for us,” he said.

The multiple transitions to online learning have affected families and been hard on staff, says Clarke.

“A big thanks to our parents and our staff as shifting to learning from home is a significant stressor for our parents, but also our staff,” said Clarke. “I sometimes think people think this is easier on our staff and less work for them, but it’s actually not – it’s harder for them.”

Clarke and Davidson say they expect to make it to the end of the school year without seeing another transition to online learning.