Public schools throughout Saskatchewan have been closed since March 20 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Students who wanted to continue with their school year have been able to through remote learning options with either online learning or through delivered packages.
Over two months into the school closures and with the pandemic still having a major impact through Canada and a need for physical distancing, it鈥檚 still unknown when schools could return.
There鈥檚 just over three months until the 2020-21 school year would regularly begin and school divisions are preparing for every option.
Good Spirit School Division
The Good Spirit School Division has remained busy throughout the pandemic, says Director of Education Quintin Robertson.
鈥淥ur over 800 employees continue to access benefits and pay,鈥� said Robertson.
鈥淪chools are continuing to operate, as far as the physical building. We鈥檝e been working extremely hard to update our facilities, so projects that were going to be on the back burner until summer or next year are getting done now. We鈥檝e got maintenance and caretaking personnel working diligently to do those projects. We鈥檝e brought in all of our busses to perform regular maintenance that would have been spread over a long period of time. It鈥檚 been lots of work behind the scenes, we鈥檝e maximized our extra time.鈥�
鈥淥ur teaching staff and paraprofessional staff are connecting with kids to continue to implement our supplemental learning plan. I have four kids at home and every day they鈥檙e online on Zoom, connecting with their teachers, working on assignments, and submitting work. My daughter 鈥� who is in grade 12 鈥� just completed her research essay as she would have in her class whether she was there or not. She just submitted it to her teacher, received feedback, and resubmitted that.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檙e also working really hard on grad,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to acknowledge our graduates through virtual means this spring and face-to-face at a later date. We just met a third time with our graduation committee to discuss grad and to respond to the info that came out on May 22 about drive-in grad.鈥�
Although the remote learning methods haven鈥檛 been ideal, Robertson says the school division has ensured everybody who wants access has been able to get it.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been not without its complications,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e given out almost 1,000 devices to our students and staff. Those were deployed by our bus drivers to remote locations around the school division. We鈥檝e also supplied a couple hundred wifi hotspots that provide wifi access to those families that didn鈥檛 have it 鈥� it鈥檚 a cellphone that is locked down and can only be used for a controlled amount of wifi. I think it鈥檚 worked relatively well.鈥�
鈥淲e are planning to gather participation rates as we prepare for the fall. That鈥檚 something that we鈥檙e going to be enacting soon. We had about 90 per cent of our students say they were going to participate in supplemental learning and now we want to know how many actually did.鈥�
鈥淲e meet every two weeks with the administrators to discuss the supplemental plan, we meet every two weeks with the board, we鈥檝e met 18 times since the pandemic started with our education council to adjust,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 constantly ebbing and flowing based on what we know.鈥�
Currently, Robertson says the school division is prepping for a return in September by getting schools and staff ready.
鈥淲e鈥檝e been told by the Education Response Planning Team 鈥� a group of the education community 鈥� to plan for two scenarios,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ne would be a return of kids in the fall as per our calendar, but with restrictions and then also to plan for remote learning. In preparation for that we are calculating the carrying capacity of everyone of our schools and every room in our schools to determine how many people can be in those rooms with two metres of distance. We have half of our schools and our central office done. We鈥檒l have all of that done by next week.鈥�
鈥淭he primary focus will be on making sure our buildings are safe, that students and staff feel safe in the buildings, and acknowledging the trauma some may have felt through this. We鈥檙e using a document that was developed by Kevin Cameron and it鈥檚 a traumatic events response and it guides school divisions through this kind of tricky territory. We will take the month of June to really test this out.鈥�
鈥淚n preparation for the fall we鈥檝e also introduced a reintroduction plan for our staff to start coming back into the buildings,鈥� he said.
鈥淭oday (May 28) our administrators and administrative assistants are allowed back into the buildings, next week our practical and applied arts teachers, science teachers, and physical education teachers will be back, and then on June 18 it is open to any staff that feel they need to be in the building to prepare for the fall. The optional return for staff in the spring is to really test out how prepared we are as far as hand washing stations, sanitization, and disinfecting. We want to make sure that we鈥檝e got it right for when our kids come back.鈥�
麻豆视频 East Cornerstone Division
鈥淲e鈥檙e preparing for a September return,鈥� said 麻豆视频 East Cornerstone Division Director of Education Lynn Little. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been directed to prepare for a number of different scenarios. We鈥檙e expecting a framework for those scenarios to be provided to us within the next few weeks.鈥�
鈥淭he Education Response Planning Team 鈥� a provincial body 鈥� is working on a framework for a return and to my understanding it will include three different scenarios. Once we have those scenarios, each school division will prepare for how we will align with and deliver education in those three scenarios.鈥�
鈥淥ne scenario would be with students back in the classroom, but honouring of course physical distancing, intensive cleaning, and all of those different pieces,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nother scenario would be remote delivery and it would be similar to what we鈥檙e doing now, but not supplemental. It would be a delivery of the curriculum and expectations would be that the students have to participate in it from an educational perspective. Then the third one is a mixture of the two, a partial return to keep the numbers smaller. There will be challenges around each of those and once we get the frameworks we will take a look and do our work within those frameworks and that will be our intensive work in June.鈥�
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 been given a date on when we would be potentially notified on which options it would be, but as soon as we would know that then we would absolutely communicate with our families.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檝e already made some adjustments in our facilities where we do have some staff working and cleaning,鈥� she said. 鈥淒oing things like cleaning those high touch areas more frequently and having hand sanitization stations available. We will have all those pieces in play, we鈥檙e just waiting for some direction and support from the government level.鈥�
Since schools were closed because of the pandemic, Little says the remote learning has been working well.
鈥淲e鈥檙e busy,鈥� said Little. 鈥淪upplemental learning continues in our schools and will continue through until the end of June. We鈥檝e received feedback from some folks that remote learning is going very well and students are able to directly engage with their teachers in class or in one-on-one. They鈥檙e able to receive speech and language support directly online and we鈥檝e heard that it鈥檚 been very positive because the parents are a part of that often. So that transition between the home and the school is a little tighter which is a silver lining for sure.
鈥淐ommunication is positive, but of course there are some challenges,鈥� she said. 鈥淎s the weather improves we are seeing less engagement as time goes on, just even in the last week there鈥檚 been a little bit of a drop-off in some parts of the system. It kind of depending on rural, farming, etc.鈥�
It鈥檚 been a learn as you go experience for everybody involved with the remote learning options, but ultimately it has worked because of the commitment staff, students, and families have put into it.
鈥淭here haven鈥檛 been any major adjustments (to remote learning), but definitely as the staff, students, and families have become more accustom to the platform 鈥� Microsoft Teams 鈥� we鈥檙e being able to extend the capabilities of that,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 been really working on engagement and engagement through technology as opposed to just a point of delivery by having engagement with a back and forth. We鈥檝e been working on that and the teachers have really been trying to incorporate that more so it鈥檚 been very positive.鈥�
鈥淚n terms of the learning packages, and accessing those learning packages, because that piece doesn鈥檛 exist for the folks that don鈥檛 have the remote learning opportunity, we鈥檝e been trying to use telephones and traditional communication methods to still reach out personally with the students. That鈥檚 proving to be positive as well.鈥�
鈥淭here will be more project-based and outcome-based assessments,鈥� she said. 鈥淚n terms of having a traditional final written assessment, that wouldn鈥檛 typically be the norm for online. It鈥檚 more based on individual students, is there a particular outcome that they can show they鈥檙e learning? Teachers are doing it in different ways, but it will be more project and assignment based than it would be a formal assessment with paper and pencil.鈥�
Little says the school division has remained busy as well with preparation for the end of the school year and planning for the next academic year.
鈥淎s a system we鈥檙e busy too,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e winding down the year for sure and kind of looking for the typical year end procedures we鈥檇 be working on. We鈥檙e staffing for next year and we鈥檙e busy putting in contracts and getting ready for that piece of it. We鈥檙e preparing students for transitions into their new grade levels 鈥� sometimes it鈥檚 grade-to-grade and sometimes it鈥檚 school-to-school like Wapella (students) moving over to McNaughton and McLeod (students) moving up into McNaughton.鈥�
鈥淪ome of our schools are working on developing virtual tours for the children because they can鈥檛 go into the schools to walk through, but giving virtual tours and talking about the programs is something our staffs are working on. We鈥檙e doing some professional development for next year and getting ready for that. We鈥檙e just trying to make sure that all of the processes we would typically do are done and they鈥檙e just done in a different way that follows the guidelines of the chief medical officer.鈥�
The school division, staff, students, and families have been thrown into a situation nobody expected, but Little says they鈥檝e made the best of it.
鈥淥verall, for sure it鈥檚 challenging to change to remote learning partway through the year and I鈥檓 very grateful to the families that have been working with us and patient with us as we learn and grow with this,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut we continue to look at this and the teachers have been a resilient lot and are looking for the positives and silver linings in this. We鈥檙e seeing some of those silver linings, we have our lessons on Microsoft Teams and in the future when we hopefully get back to a face-to-face if a student is absent then we have the ability to give them the lesson. There鈥檚 lot of pieces like that where we think good will come out of this instructionally in the end.鈥�
