What to expect from the school semester in Burns Lake

With the start date of the winter school semester being pushed to Jan. 10 provincially due to the rise in Omicron cases, School District 91 (SD91) issued a letter to all parents and guardians, telling them what to expect as the semester moves forward.

“We do not know what the landscape will look like over the next few weeks or months, but we anticipate some staffing challenges will impact educational services like other sectors. The district is developing contingency plans in case of a functional closure scenario,” SD91 stated in the letter.

“We ask that families look at backup plans if we need to shift to remote home learning for a short duration. We realize this will be a challenge for some families and want to give as much notice, if possible.”

Should a functional closure occur, children of essential health workers or children with diverse and complex needs could still attend if staffing levels are sufficient to provide a safe environment. In addition, SD91 says that schools within the district would have strategies in place to allow parents to access or pick up home resources.

On Jan. 11, Decker Lake Elementary School Principal, Wendy Kelemen issued a message to parents of the school with regards to a potential closure.

“Our school staff completed the updated health and safety orientation and prepared an emergency work package for every student to complete if our school must functionally close for more the one day. If it should close for a short period of time, the teachers have prepared these emergency work packages which students will be asked to bring home in the coming days,” she said in the letter.

“The package contains multiple days of activities related to the key areas of numeracy, literacy, and social-emotional learning. Like your first aid kit at home, we have prepared these emergency work packages in hopes that you will not need them, but you will have them should the worst-case scenario of a functional school closure unfold.”

For now, as schools remain open, SD91 provided parents with a list of suggestions for preventing the spread of Omicron. These include; completing a daily health check and regularly monitoring illness symptoms and specifying that an absence is illness-related when notifying their school.

READ MORE: Update on School District 91 vaccine mandate