With a return to normal on the horizon for many schools this September, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board is busy preparing to welcome students back to the classroom in a few weeks.
However, some pandemic lessons will be carrying through their operations.
Pauline Stevenson, communications manager with the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board told CollingwoodToday.ca this week that the Catholic board takes direction from the Ministry of Education.
“They’ve been pretty clear that they want this school year to be as normal as possible for students,” said Stevenson.
About 22,000 students are enrolled to attend Simcoe County’s Catholic schools this year. Parents and guardians of students wishing to continue with remote learning in September 2022 were required to register in the spring, and Stevenson said about 140 students will be taking that route.
“We’re certainly excited to begin the year in a way where students are going to be able to interact and have that face-to-face experience that everybody has been missing. We are hopeful that we’re able to maintain it for the duration,” she said.
There are some protocols that came out of COVID-19 that the boards will be continuing. Enhanced cleaning protocols will be continuing, and the board says it still has enough personal protective equipment for students and staff should they request them.
Masks are optional as they were at the end of the 2021/22 school year.
“The good news is, we’re returning back with our extracurricular activities. We ended the school year like that, and that’s how we’re going to start again,” she said.
Exams in secondary schools will be returning for the 2022/23 school year.
“We continue to be concerned and cautious about staffing issues. We had issues with coverage for teachers, education assistants and other employees. When they’re off, we don’t have a large pool of supplies to cover off,” said Stevenson.
Post-COVID, there are some aspects of education that Stevenson says may not ever return to normal, as the pandemic has proven them to be effective education tools.
“Our use of technology. All of our staff throughout COVID-19 had a virtual learning environment for their classes, and that’s going to continue,” she said. “If you would have said that every educator in our school board would have had a virtual classroom, we would have said that would have taken a very, very long time to implement. Because of COVID, it’s implemented, and we’ll continue to use it, which is great.”
In regards to community facility rentals, the Catholic board has opened up their permitting system for the fall.
“We’re planning on pretty much going back to our pre-COVID model,” she said, noting the Catholic board will be reviewing their costing for the service in the fall.
When contacted for comment regarding their back-to-school plans for September, a spokesperson for the Simcoe County District School Board said they would speak to their plans next week.
