Students will be heading back to school next Monday and the Superintendent of Schools for Golden Hills School Division, Bevan Daverne, can’t wait to have the hallways full again.
“I have to say that we're pretty excited to be going back to school here on Monday. However, we are certainly seeing the impact of COVID running through our communities. There are lots of positive cases and this has given us a little bit of time to prepare and plan for Monday. We are expecting there to be more absenteeism.”
Daverne explained that they received feedback from parents, staff, and students lobbying to return from school and that they want the least number of interruptions as possible.
“So far, we've seen very little transmission in our schools, whether or not the Omicron variant is different remains to be seen. There certainly is lots of transmission going on in communities right now. I think some of the planning that we're doing is because we know that if people have symptoms they are to stay at home. Parents have been great with keeping their children at home if they have symptoms.”
Daverne continued that they are aware of how fast the new variant can travel, and know that there may also be teachers who have to isolate as well.
“If our staff have symptoms, they will be at home and we are expecting and planning for the potential to be accessing more substitute teachers. If we are short of substitute teachers we have other plans that we are looking at to stay operational as long as possible.”
Even though the variant is looming in the community, Daverne confirmed that there will be many COVID-19 protocols in place to keep the spread to a minimum including at-home rapid tests sent home with children, masks, and continued sanitization.
He is looking forward to another semester of school as close to normal as they can get it.