(Aaron Schulze/northeastNOW Staff)

By Mat Barrett

School Division Adjusting

Local school divisions adjusting as COVID-19 shuts down schools

Mar 18, 2020 | 11:57 AM

Schools are already nearly empty with parents keeping their children home, but as of Friday, March 20, classrooms will be completely void of students.

On Monday, March 16, the Saskatchewan Government made the announcement that school in the province would be suspended as of Friday. That means students had this week to clean out lockers and desks and take home school work.

Locally, school divisions in the area have adjustments to make in their divisions. Horizon School Division (HSD) Director of Education Kevin Garinger said they continue to do what they can to keep their families and staff updated.

“Sharing information as quickly as we can when we have it,” he said. “And because it changes so rapidly, we want to make sure we’re on top of it at all times.”

Garinger said they have sent out almost a memo a day for the past few days to keep up communication with those who need it. He said even though their students are asked to take things home, it doesn’t necessarily mean school is over.

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“In doing that, we’re able to do those deep cleans,” Garinger told northeastNOW. “So, hopefully, if and when our students are able to return to those schools, they’re clean at a different level. Of course, I think our caretakers do a fantastic job already.”

He added they’re working to find out ways to keep learning going on at home while kids aren’t at school, but it’s going to be an adjustment for teachers as they work to teach in alternative ways.

“Teachers who have traditionally had children in front of them are now going to have to look at providing learning opportunities in a different way,” he said. “So we want to manage that very carefully.”

In the North East School Division, Director of Education Don Rempel said as things progress, they also are making sure staff and families know what is happening to make sure things can still move along, even if teachers aren’t in the classroom.

“So right now what we’re trying to do is make sure we have effective communication channels between staff to connect together,” he said. “And between the North East School Division and students and their families so we can continue to communicate moving forward, that’s what we’re working on this week.”

Rempel said as for teachers working right now, he said they’ll be in the schools until the end of the week, but then things will shift a little bit for the next couple weeks. Teachers will be assigned new roles by the end of this week as they shift to working from home.

As for the students, that would be the next step in this process. Rempel said they’ll do what they can to make sure Grade 12 students have what they need.

“We’re going to try to provide supports for students that’ll be going to post-secondary,” Rempel said. “So that they can attend the content that they weren’t able to get to between now and June.”

They’re still working on what the plan will be for other students as well.

Meanwhile, Rempel added that NESD hasn’t forgot about those who are in their final year of high school.

“We will honour and respect our graduates at the appropriate time with high school graduation celebrations, etc. when it’s appropriate to do so,” he said. “I just want to urge the community to let the North East School Division pick up the pieces in the future after this health crisis has passed.”

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mat.barrett@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @matbarrett6