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By Liam Verster

Back To School Plans

GPPSD prepares to have kids back in class while looking at online learning option

Aug 11, 2020 | 2:32 PM

The Grande Prairie Public School Division is getting ready to open school doors to kids this fall. GPPSD will be following the Provincial Government’s first scenario of the back to school plan, which involves having more health and hygiene measures in place, and students grouped in cohorts.

Superintendent Sandy McDonald says work is underway to prepare the schools for re-opening. Barriers have been installed in offices and areas where there’s a possibility of close contact, and hand sanitizing stations are being installed in schools this week. Meanwhile, the school division is still waiting on shipments of hand sanitizer, as well as the masks the province is providing for staff and students, though McDonald says they are due to arrive before schools reopen.

McDonald says principals return to schools this week, and teachers are back in the following weeks. Once they’re back, there will be lots of meetings in those final weeks before school resumes to discuss strategies for how to reopen and ensure the safety of both the children and staff, and reduce the risk of a COVID-19 outbreak.

“We’ve hired extra caretakers to be in our schools during the day. We’ve purchased enhanced cleaning products, we’ve developed new cleaning protocols increasing the frequency of cleaning those high-touch surfaces and that sort of thing. Those Kindergarten to Grade 8 cohorts, the government used the word cohort but I’ll use the word classes of students, those are pretty easy to maintain, they mostly stay together during the course of the day.

“When staff shows up, principals and vice-principals will be working with teachers to develop new routines, kind of specific to the needs of each school as each school can be different, to minimize the amount of contact with other cohort groups. So, in cases where students might have in the past moved from classes, now things like [having] the teacher moving to the students and the students will be staying.”

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There will also be staggered entry in hallways and recess breaks, and entry to the schools will be fairly restricted for the first few months. Appointments will need to be made in advance for parent-teacher meetings, so as to limit the amount of people coming into schools.

Masks will also be mandatory in shared areas, such as hallways and on buses, and McDonald says the general consensus he’s heard about the Provincial Government’s idea to implement this mask policy has been well received.

“The Minister [of Education’s] direction to make, and Dr. Hinshaw’s direction to make masks mandatory for students in Grades 4 through 12 was appreciated, and I think people appreciate that on the whole. I recognize that sentiment about maybe the efficacy or the effectiveness of masks is not shared by everyone, but we believe that we can work with staff and our students to do that.”

He adds that though masks aren’t mandatory for the younger kids, they are encouraging them to wear them as well, if possible.

McDonald says while it’s a near-normal return, it’s still not something that is common place, and while teachers and staff will have to take some time to adapt, there is an excitement to return to the classrooms and teach students face-to-face.

GPPSD is also preparing its plan for online learning options and is asking for parents’ input on online learning options, as they want to know how many families and students are interested in learning from home, and who wants to return to the classrooms. The survey can be found here. Parents have until Sunday, August 16 to complete the survey.

McDonald says though the plans are in the works and are somewhat dependent on how many students choose the online learning option, the model they plan to offer will be much more structured and comprehensive than the one used during the lockdowns in the spring.

“Our thinking about this year is that if parents are not ready to have their children return to school right now, we want to make sure that those children are prepared for when they can and do return to school. So, learning at home will be a little bit [of a] bigger task than it was last year. We’ll be providing instruction in all of the core subject areas, and in some of the optional areas as well, we’re really concerned about ensuring our students get as much access to the whole curriculum as possible. And it will be scheduled, so there will be classes and direct contact with teachers and that sort of thing.”

McDonald says this is the first of three scenarios the Province set out for how schools could resume, with the second option being a cross with in-class and online learning, and the third being only online learning. He says it’s up to health officials to determine the risks in the community, and if there is a need to shut down, they are prepared to move to either of the other scenarios.

The Grande Prairie Public School Division’s full re-entry plan can be found on their website.