95 per cent of District 22 students in class

Sep 17, 2020 | 1:09 PM

The vast majority of students in the Vernon School District are learning in classrooms this fall.

District staff say about 95 per cent of their students are attending in-class instruction with the other five per cent taking temporary online learning which is an increase of about 400 students compared to September 2019.

Superintendent Joe Rogers told the school board Wednesday seven teachers have been added to the district’s V-Learn division to support the increased numbers of fulltime and temporary online students.

The other staffing additions include eight enhanced cleaners to disinfect high touch areas and eight midday bus routes to transport up to half the Grade 10/11/12 students in the larger secondary schools home at lunch to reduce cross cohort mixing and to provide the elective courses students need for post grad applications.

Click here to read the school opening report delivered to the board of education.

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The district will have numbers on student enrolment in a couple of weeks.

“We won’t have more accurate numbers until early October after the numbers are finalized September 30 and sent to the Ministry [of Education],” said Lynn Jameson, media relations with District 22.

(Excerpt from school opening report from Superintendent Joe Rogers)

School District 83 (North Okanagan Shuswap) is still finalizing its student numbers and should have something to release next week.

As the first full week of school comes to a close, early attendance numbers provincially show more than 85 per cent of K-12 public school students returned for in-class learning, according to a Ministry of Education survey.

“It’s been incredible to see so many students being able to connect with their teachers, support staff and classmates again, and that school districts developed remote options for other students across B.C.,” said Rob Fleming, Minister of Education. “Both as a parent and as Minister of Education, I’m grateful to educators and staff for the innovation, collaboration and hard work that went into getting schools ready for this safe restart, with local solutions to meet the specific needs of students and families.”

The ministry said over 1,500 new positions have been created by school districts in preparation for the restart, based on information from districts that have responded to the survey.

624 additional teachers hired in 34 school districts and 157,000 additional staff hours
73 educational assistants hired in 12 school districts and 5,100 additional staff hours
542 custodial staff in 38 school districts hired and 386,000 additional staff hours
287 positions such as school counsellors, bus drivers or administrative staff in 23 school districts and 38,000 additional staff hours.

by Pete McIntyre

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