Back to school COVID plans unveiled

The Vernon School District has issued its return-to-school plan as kids get ready to learn during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic.

The North Okanagan-Shuswap School District’s plan is also in place.

School District 22’s Pandemic Plan and Exposure Control Plan runs to 100 pages and has been a lot of work for staff, said school board chair Robert Lee.

The plan was put on the school district’s website after district officials and board members held a Zoom meeting with the Ministry of Education Tuesday afternoon in order to finalize the details.

Lee said Vernon’s plan will essentially be the same as other school districts across the province.

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“We have to follow the provincial mandate,” Lee said. “There will be some tweaks, such as transportation changes.”

Lee said this could include sending some high school students home earlier because they have to stay in cohorts, as requested by the Ministry of Health.

Parents have already been advised by Education Minister Rob Fleming that schools will look different this September.

Fleming is expected to update the province on B.C.’s back-to-school plans Wednesday afternoon.

What is known is that starting Sept. 8, all staff will meet with their school’s joint health and safety committee to receive instructions about how the updated guidelines, co-developed with the BC Centre for Disease Control and provincial health officer, will work in their school.

Students will return to class on Sept. 10 and be given time to get familiar with classrooms that will look different than they did before the pandemic.

Vernon school superintendent Joe Rogers said the ministry is providing increased funding for more cleaning supplies and cleaning staff as well as reuseable masks for staff and students available on request.

Meanwhile, the superintendent of the North Okanagan-Shuswap School District (83), Peter Jory, is offering some assurance to parents that all precautions are being taken to keep children safe.

“Please know that our staff have gone above and beyond to provide the very safest, cleanest and best organized environment we could, and that our work will continue on throughout the school year and beyond,” Jory stated. “For more than half of our students, it has been nearly six months since they have set foot in their school.

“We are hearing that many cannot wait to get back in session, see their friends and favourite staff members and return to a ‘normal’ learning routine.”

He said district restart and safety plans are on the website and each school will be providing its own site-specific information.