(Cam Lee/northeastNOW Staff)

By Cam Lee

NESD update on virus

On pause: NESD sending staff home next week amid COVID-19 outbreak

Mar 19, 2020 | 2:00 PM

School boards across the province are pausing educational operations next week.

It’s all in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today will be the final day for students in the classroom, though many children have been kept home for most of the week as school operations wind down.

“We’ll be checking to make sure that our schools are secure in the morning [on Friday],” North East School Division Director of Education Don Rempel told northeastNOW. “We’ve directed staff that they’re not to be in our school buildings until further direction comes.”

Rempel said educational staff will be at home next week.

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“They’ll be going home to work with their families and their community and to observe social distancing and to adjust to the new normal and the direction under the provincial government’s State of Emergency,” Rempel said.

The school division encourages families to avoid congregating in groups in accordance to the province’s decree.

Rempel said to support students and families in the new reality, they’ll be working from home, but that likely won’t start until at least March 30. He said the division took this week to shore up their business continuity plan, and they know they need to have technology functioning appropriately to prepare staff to be able to work from home.

“Right now for the next week we wanted them just to calm down, get home, attend to their family and their needs, and take the week to just kind of catch their breath,” Rempel said.

Over the past week, many students were able to stay home. However, Rempel said some did come to school as parents were winding down businesses and tending to other things. Rempel said they’re appreciative of the efforts everyone’s doing to prepare society to take the pressure off the health system over the coming weeks and months.

“In the grand scheme of things, this will be a few months out of our lives and we’ll get through it together, and then we’ll return to normalcy when it’s appropriate,” Rempel said.

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cam.lee@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @camlee1974