INNISFAIL – Students at Catholic schools in Olds and Innisfail returned to the classroom yesterday (Aug. 31) to begin the 2020-21 school year.
It marks the first time in-person classes have been held in the Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools (RDCRS) division since mid-March when the novel coronavirus pandemic lockdown began.
Schools in Chinook's Edge School Division (CESD) welcomed students back for in-person learning starting today (Sept. 1) for the 2020-21 school year. The division was also forced to cancel in-person learning in mid-March becasue of the lockdown.
Like its Catholic counterpart, CESD employed a staggered start to the school year. CESD students with surnames beginning with the letters A through K started on Sept. 1 while students with surnames beginning with L through Z begin on Sept. 2.
Social distancing and other COVID-19 protection measures are in place in all schools, buses and other school facilities.
Those measures include the requirement that students in grade 4 - 12, teachers, staff and school visitors wear face coverings when in common areas and school buses.
There are 15 new teachers in the division’s New Teacher Orientation program for 2020-2021, with superintendent Kurt Sacher saying they are well prepared to succeed.
“We work hard in our school division to ensure you voice is heard and acted upon,” Sacher told the new educators. “It is designed so that you have a number of ways to find support from you colleagues and from other resources the division makes available for you.
“We want you to take responsibility for taking care of yourself, knowing that everyone around you wants you to be successful.”
Teachers in Chinook’s Edge make a “profound difference” in the lives of students, he said.
“Everyone is wanting you to do well and we are so lucky to have you with us,” he said.
Online learning option
More than 1,400 students in the public and Catholic school systems in the district have registered for online learning, officials said Friday.
Of the 10,480 RDCRS students, more 900 have so far registered for the at-home option.
Due the COVID-19 pandemic, the online option is being made available for the 2020-21 school year.
RDCRS has already re-assigned seven teachers to conduct the online classes, with the plan being to bring on more teachers in the coming days, said Ryan Ledene, associate superintendent of personnel.
“They (teachers) will stay with their home schools and will be assigned an online load that includes students from across the division,” said Ledene, noting that the deadline to apply for the online option was Aug. 26.
“We are up to seven now but we are absolutely planning to bring in more.”
As well as more teachers, the division also plans to re-assign administrative staff to the online option, he said.
“We have a division principal assigned to this,” he said. “As far as office staff, we will use some central office support.”
Teachers will be based either at schools or remotely from home, he said.
Meanwhile, 525 students have registered for the online option in Chinook’s Edge, said superintendent Kurt Sacher.
The division plans to hire four additional teachers who will be dedicated solely to online learning, he said.
“We just put out an ad for four teachers in the area of remote learning,” he said. “They are temporary teaching positions so anyone who is interested and qualified would be considered.
“We have other resources that we will put in place relative to the program. It will really depend on the need and if we find that we are understaffed we will add additional staff. That is just to get us started.”
The 11,000-student division is also looking at deploying some staff from central office to help with the online learning students, he said.
“They will help fill in the gaps and provide supports,” he said.
Although the process to apply for online learning through the central office has now closed, parents can still apply to access the option through an interview process, he said.
“Our philosophy is that we haven’t just said, ‘Here’s an option’. We want to have a discussion. We really believe in face-to-face learning, so we want parents to be fully aware of the choice they are making,” he said.
If a parent decides to have his or her child moved from in-person to online learning during the school years, a process is in place, he said.
“They would need to talk to the school if they are feeling like that,” he said. “It would be considered for sure if it was in the best interest of that family.
“We want to keep them in Chinook’s Edge. Our preference is face-to-face learning, but ultimately we want to keep them connected to our school division.”
RDCRS will also give parents an option to have their kids switch from in-class to online learning, based on a case-by-case basis, said Ledene.
“We asked parents for a commitment for the semester, to the end of January,” said Ledene. “In every case, we will treat each case individually so we would hear a parent’s concerns either way.”
