SCHOOL RESTART DELAYED TO JANUARY 10

Dear Parents,

By now you have likely heard that school restart has been delayed to January 10th. For healthcare workers’ children and those children that have significant special needs, childcare will be available next week, provided you have let us know by this Friday. Please note that as clarified by Minister Whiteside, at this time this service is only for these two groups of people and not all essential service workers. Please note that next week is not online learning, and as such parents should not expect to hear from teachers. Based on the updated administrative measures that were given to school administrators today, we will be working together next week to ensure that we are prepared for a safe restart and that you are well-informed as to what changes will be put into place. These updated measures are similar to what we had in place last September. Some of the measures (this is only the preliminary list, there may be more to come) that you will see are:

- possible adjustments to the start of the day with the intent to limit close contact fo students as they wait for the bell- more info to come next week.
-all school gatherings, parent meetings, staff meetings to be virtual (including school masses). Please note that registration drop off dates will be affected by these new measures- stay tuned for more information)
- ensuring that seating arrangements in the classrooms allow for space and limited to no physical contact
-all extra-curricular activities suspended
-increased cleaning and disinfecting
-reminding parents of the importance of doing daily health checks with children prior to coming to school
-ensuring that students who fall ill at school are sent home and isolated from the rest of the school population
-all students without exemptions should be wearing effective face masks (PHO recommendation is to wear medical grade masks). Students should not be wearing reusable masks several days in a row, and masks should be well-fitted and in good condition.
-strategies in place to encourage personal space between students and between staff
-no parent volunteers in the school- this will unfortunately affect current parent participation jobs that have been posted and filled

At this time schools have not been asked to reimplement the cohort system. We are blessed with a big property where students can space out, and measures will be taken inside the school building to avoid close contact. We are expecting that there may be a few more updates coming in the next week. Thank you for your understanding and support. This is definitely not the start we were hoping for, but we are confident that the measures that will be put back into place will ensure the health and safety of all of our students and staff, therefore allowing for the continuation of in-person learning starting on January 10th. I will continue to update you as I get more information, and an updated Communicable Disease plan will be sent out next week reflecting all of the implemented measures.

God bless,

C. Heah
Principal