As I write this, I’ve been preparing for a formal meeting of our Educational Leadership Team where we are going to work through our first draft of our Return to School plan. Additionally, we are awaiting the operational guidelines from the Ministry of Education that will have specifics around a number of safety and educational delivery questions. We anticipate receiving these later today.
I appreciate that there remains considerable uncertainty around the return. As a school we are seeking to be as transparent as possible. Although we don’t anticipate approval of our plan until the middle of next week, during this Friday’s Lewis’ Lens I will do my best to present what we have forwarded to the Ministry. We anticipate formal communication of the plan next week after we have received approval.
I know many of you have been praying for the school and our leadership. It’s appreciated.
Some Key Dates/Timelines:
August 10: Ministry releases Operational Planning Template for Return to School for schools to develop a return plan for approval by the Ministry.
August 17:Ministry releases updated Operating Guidelines for Schools for Covid.
August 17 – 21: Schools must submit plans for approval.
August 21 – 26: Ministry reviews plans, schools begin process of communicating approved plans – including: health and safety guidelines, learning groups, scheduling and enrollment options under Stage 2 plans.
August 26: Schools to post information on return plans online.
September 8: School restart at Stage 2.
Key Links for Information
- BC Ministry of Education – Covid 19: Return to School – the key Ministry site for guidelines around school return.
- Child Care and Schools – the BC Centre for Disease Control school site. Contains information on health issues related to the return. There are links to numerous topics including a discussion of learning groups and physical distancing.
- Worksafe BC Return to School Education Protocols – guidelines to ensure student and staff safety.
- PCS Covid 19 Communications – an archive of key PCS Covid communications.
Darren Lewis
Superintendent