Local school divisions discuss at home and in school learning

Hinshaw and LaGrange are both parents and said they feel comfortable sending their own children to school under the current plan.

Local school divisions recognize that this is a time of heightened anxiety and everyone has questions on this fluid situation.

Deputy Superintendent (starting at the end of August) of Prairie Rose School Division Reagan Weeks says they will have family school liaison workers who are prepared to work with any mental health or anxiety issues that are arising.

The division will also work alongside staff and parents to address every circumstance to best meet student needs.

At this time, Prairie Rose is moving forward with option one of the school relaunch and expects most of their students will choose to be at school.

Weeks also anticipates increased absenteeism this year in order to follow the health guidelines.

She says they haven’t had many families reach out so far who are wishing to keep their children at home.

“Ideally we will have students coming back to school in a safe manner as possible. However, we do understand that there will be some parents who choose to learn from home in which case we’ll work with those parents and various personnel across Prairie Rose to make that as feasible as possible,” Weeks said.

A survey at Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education also found that parents want their kids to go back to school.

MHCBE Superintendent Dwayne Zarichny says significant concerns were raised about kids staying home and not being with their friends. Parents are also worried about the mental health of their children without that social contact.

“Parents were very vocal in our survey response in that they didn’t want their kids to be spending all day every day behind a computer. They shared with us that they were very well aware that the best learning takes place in a classroom with a teacher supporting their child directly.”

But he expects there will be some who choose to have their kids learn at home and are working with family situations right now.

“We do recognize that there are some students for example that are medically fragile who may want to stay at home for the first little bit until they get a better understanding of what the school year is looking at and our board is prepared to accommodate those needs as they come up,” Zarichny said.

Adding that the division is focusing on making sure parent concerns are addressed.

Most common concerns are around ensuring sanitizing stations are available and respiratory etiquette will be followed.

At Medicine Hat Public School Division (MHPSD), families can choose whether their child goes to school or learns from home.

MHPSD says parents are not making a commitment to keep their child home for the entire school year.

And at any point during the 2020/2021 year students are welcome to come back to the classroom.

In order to plan for at-home learning MHPSD has a form for families to fill out.

That form will close on August 4 and can be found by visiting this link.

by Chantal Wagner

Local school divisions discuss at home and in school learning

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