Details on what the return to school will look like in September

Superintendent Mark Davidson with Medicine Hat Public School Division (MHPSD) says there will be an increased focus on hygiene, not sharing materials, and avoiding close face to face conversations.

There will also be changes in high schools.

To limit the number of students moving from class to class, there will be a different look to the curriculum.

Instead of four courses in a semester, students will take two courses that run for one quarter of the year.

Class sizes will differ depending on the subject.

For K-3 schools, class size would be roughly 20. Grades 4-9 would be, on average, in the low to mid 20’s at MHPSD.

Students will be kept with their classmates as part of a cohort group.

So for the most part, teachers will be moving from class to class.

“In our plan, a class group will remain in their classroom except for recess and going to the gym for physed. For the most part, if there’s a teacher beyond their homeroom teacher that works with them, that person will come to them. That allows us to accomplish what the chief medical officer of health has directed us to do which is as much as possible cohort our students that are together throughout the school day,” Davidson said.

Deputy Superintendent with Prairie Rose School Division Kal Koch says they’re happy to welcome students back as well.

They’ll also be following the regular school day schedule as best they can.

And he says their maintenance department was installing water bottle filling stations at schools that didn’t have them.

“In terms of hand sanitizer, we got lots of it. I know our maintenance person was buying it in 5-gallon pails. We got lots of hand sanitizer stations set up, so we’ll be ready to go that way,” Koch said.

The school divisions will be putting out info for parents and students about the changes and what to expect this school year in the coming weeks.

More K-12 school re-entry from the province can be found by visiting this link.

by Chantal Wagner

Details on what the return to school will look like in September

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