Holy Spirit bracing for a unique school year

However, the division is prepared for some of those students and their parents to change their minds.

“We’ve got some pivot points. Not dates necessarily, but we’re asking our parents to provide about a month’s notice for a request to return to school,” Sampson said.

“They would work directly with school administrators to determine how and when that could actually take place. It may not take a full month, it may be just a couple of weeks or three weeks or whatever the case may be, but there’s lots of contextual factors that come into play that would drive that decision.”

STUDENTS WITH COMPLEX NEEDS

Sampson said for students with complex needs, they’re still studying the data gathered from parents to determine an exact number of learners for each school.

“Once we know definitively what our numbers are, principals will start looking at their staff to be able to deploy the staff to support students with diverse learning needs, so that’s going to look very different all across the division,” he explained, adding the division will have multiple supports for students.

“Every school would have a designated contingent of education assistants and all schools have access to our family school liaison counsellors, as well as First Nations, Metis, and Inuit support workers. We also have a behaviour support team and mental health capacity building team that would be able to provide supports to students that are requiring it, to whatever degree.”

He said the focus will be on ensuring that the transition back to school is as smooth as possible.

“It’s understandable that our parents have some sort of degree of trepidation or uncertainty or concern, and rightfully so. None of us [have] lived through a pandemic situation where we’ve had to make changes in how we operationalize education, period. I mean, that’s just something we’ve not experienced in our lifetime,” Sampson added.

GUIDELINES

Sampson explained that Holy Spirit will adhere to all safety guidelines set by Alberta Health.

Families will also be required to conduct health self-assessments at the beginning of each day to make sure they are not showing symptoms of COVID-19.

Sampson added that they’ve boosted cleaning measures at schools and increased staff to ensure all facilities remain clean and disinfected.

“We’ve also taken all of our water fountains, for example, and they will be out of operations,” he said.

“They’ve been replaced with hydration stations. Most of our schools had them anyway but over the summer we’ve made sure schools were equipped with these refillable water stations.”

Additionally, extracurricular activities have been put on hold for the time being, in an effort to mitigate the spread of the novel coronavirus.

FACE MASKS

Last month, the province announced that face masks will be mandatory for students in grade four to 12. The exception will be in classrooms that can allow for proper social distancing.

Sampson said depending on the student, though, there could be other exceptions.

“If there are justified medical reasons why a student should not be wearing a mask, we will treat those on a one-off basis, a case-by-case basis and have the conversations with parents and the students to ensure that if it’s something that can’t be done – [maybe] instead of wearing a mask for the full day, it’s only part of the day. We will treat each one of these cases on a case-by-case basis,” he told LNN.

“If families wish to send their children who are younger than grade four to school with masks, then that’s certainly their prerogative and they can do that, and we would certainly honour that as well.”

CONCERNS FROM TEACHERS AND STAFF

Sampson said the division is actually nearing the end of a survey sent out to teachers, in regard to teaching in class versus teaching from home.

“We’ve only had at this point in time a handful of individuals who believe that they have to be at home for whatever reason – whether it’s a compromised immune system or a medical reason that they have to be home, with a note provided by their doctor – but we’ve also had a number of our staff who have indicated that should there be a need for them to provide at-home learning that they would be willing to do so,” he said.

Sampson noted about 70 percent of teachers have responded to the survey so far, and as more information comes in, the division will have a better picture of who will be providing at-home learning.

“The response from teachers has been quite good to date. We haven’t gotten as much definitive information as it relates to support staff, but teachers [are] certainly in a decent position to be able to plan to move forward.”

Sampson added that Holy Spirit understands that students have been away from a typical classroom setting for many months, and he anticipates a unique school year.

“We want our parents to understand that we are going to do our utmost to ensure that they will be kept safe and that learning will continue, and we’ll continue to provide quality Catholic education to all of our children and students regardless if they’re at home or if they’re going to be with us in person.”

LETHBRIDGE SCHOOL DIVISION

Lethbridge News Now asked the Lethbridge School Division how they would accommodate students with complex needs, and the division provided the following statement:

“Lethbridge School Division recognizes the 2020/2021 school year will present a wide range of challenges for students and staff. Division staff will endeavour to provide all the necessary supports to our students with disabilities, and those who require specific supports inside and outside the classroom. The COVID-19 pandemic will require flexibility and the ability to adjust quickly throughout the school year, for all of our learners.”

by Justin Goulet

Holy Spirit bracing for a unique school year

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