SD20 schools to be back in session Monday
By Contributor
Dear parents and guardians:
Thank you for your patience while we solidified our plans for the reopening of schools for students. These plans are based on an assumption that both the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the BC Public School Employers’ Association (BCPSEA) ratify the tentative agreement reached earlier this week. We expect to know the results of the BCTF ratification vote Thursday night and late Friday afternoon for BCPSEA.
Assuming both parties ratify the agreement the first day of school for students will be Monday, September 22. This will be a full day for school for students in Grades 1 to 12 in our traditional schools. Students in our alternative education programs should contact the school directly for start-up procedures. School buses will operate on their regular schedule. For details about the bussing schedule please review our transportation website. For school bell times please follow this link and scroll to the bottom for each school’s bell schedule.
We will maintain the scheduled professional development day on Friday, September 26. This will mean that there will be no school for students on that day. The professional development day is important as schools have not had the opportunity to have school wide discussions amongst staff related to school success plans, ways to support student achievement, and school wide initiatives since last April.
For our kindergarten parents & guardians, we will have a modified gradual entry for kindergarten students. The gradual entry will be one week rather than the originally scheduled 2 week process. For kindergarten students only:
Monday, Sept. 22 – Kindergarten students attend for two hours, as per their group assignment (Group A or Group B); if you are not sure about your child’s group assignment, please contact the school;
Tuesday, Sept. 23 – Kindergarten students attend for two hours, as per their group assignment;
Wednesday, Sept. 24 – Kindergarten students attend for the full morning, and will stay for the lunch break;
Thursday, Sept. 25 – Kindergarten students attend for the full morning, and will stay for the lunch break;
Friday, Sept. 26 – Professional Development Day – no school for students;
Starting Monday, Sept. 29 – Kindergarten students attend for the full day, following the regular school calendar
*** Note that there is no bussing for Kindergarten students for the week of Sept 22-25th due to the gradual entry schedule.
There has been much speculation about the possibility of extending the school year either by adding time to the school day or by adding days to the school year. At this time we do not anticipate doing either. Likely for secondary schools the end date for semester 1 and the beginning of semester 2 will be adjusted to try and better balance the number of days in each semester given our later start. More information will follow in the upcoming weeks about those type of changes along with potential changes or additions to the dates for the provincial exams.
We are excited to be able to have your children back in school. I ask for your continued patience as individual classrooms may not look as they usually do, textbooks may not go out on the first day, our grass is a little long in our fields, and offices have not been able to get every form ready for students due to the limited time staff have had to be back in schools. Our priority has been to get our students back with their teachers and in the class.
Sincerely,
Greg Luterbach
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