School boards adjusting to new health measures

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Some Strathmore and area students have returned to at-home learning.

Under new provincial rules, students in Grades 7-12 returned to at-home learning on Nov. 30, while students from kindergarten through Grade 6 will continue attending school in person for the time being.

The changes were announced on Nov. 24, alongside several other public health measures aimed to address increasing COVID-19 case numbers across the province.

Golden Hills School Division (GHSD) anticipated a possible shift away from the classroom, and prepared accordingly, said superintendent Bevan Daverne. 

“Now it’s just a question of getting the details worked out and making sure the students have what they need, for a really smooth transition on Monday,” he said on Nov. 27.

Daverne said he appreciates the support of parents throughout the pandemic and hopes the new policies supports them. 

“Part of the rationale for K to six staying in school is a continued support for parents who need to attend to work in or out of the house,” he said. “Our junior (and) senior high students are a little more independent and are able to manage potentially without a parent in the household.”

Following the two-week holiday break, all students, from kindergarten through Grade 12, will have a week of at-home coursework from Jan. 4 to 8. Then, as per the current plan, all students will return to physical school the following week, on Jan. 11.

The week of at-home learning provides an isolation period for students who may have met with family and friends over the holidays. 

“Then if we return to school, we potentially avoid some of the disruption that positive cases and (subsequent) isolation might cause within the schools,” said Daverne.

But given the changing nature of the pandemic, this plan could be adjusted. The Ministry of Health and Alberta Education could continue with Grades 7-12 learning at home, have all students continuing their education from home, or have everyone return to school, said Daverne.

For the older students, learning at home will be different that last spring, when schools were shut down in response to the initial spread of the virus. 

“About a quarter of the work that we would normally do in school is what was being managed at home,” he said. “But this time, we will be covering everything at home that we would at school.”

In the spring, as part of Alberta Education’s mandate, marks were not affected by the shutdown, and students who were on track to pass before the shutdown would pass. But now, students will be expected to do the work associated with their course load and will be assessed on that work, through marks and evaluation. 

“It all counts this time,” said Daverne.

There will be a stronger link between students and the school this time around as well. 

“We’re going to have stronger virtual connections,” he said. “Students will hear from their teacher (and) connect with their teacher, doing what would be normally done in their scheduled class time.”

For students with Christ the Redeemer (CTR) Catholic Schools, class will be live-streamed, with students going from online meeting to online meeting (on Zoom or Google Meets), instead of classroom to classroom, said superintendent Scott Morrison.

CTR staff have gained expertise about conducting at-home learning after 150 teachers volunteered to pilot livestream teaching to start this year. 

“We’ve gained incredible knowledge about the dos and don’ts of live streaming and the technology, and how to support the teachers in doing it,” he said. “We’ve learned a lot and we feel quite prepared.”

Both school boards have invested into technological materials and infrastructure. For example, CTR has used provincial and federal funding to purchase 500 new Chromebooks last year, and plans to do the same this year, said Morrison.

Also, five full-time information technology (IT) positions are employed by CTR. 

“They offer direct support; we’ve got a hotline for parents if they’re having technological difficulties,” he said. “We also have online guides for parents and students on how to use both live streaming and Google classroom, the web-based system we use to organize documents.”

GHSD and CTR have worked together to meet the challenges of the pandemic and the changing response to it, added Morrison. 

“The cooperation between our school boards is exemplary,” he said. “We’ve often had long discussions about decisions and come to conclusions together about the best way to support our kids.”