Teachers and administrators are working through the many challenges posed by the restrictions set in place for the COVID-19 pandemic, trustees heard at the board meeting for the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division on Wednesday.
The board meeting was held via conference call, with board chair Bruno Tuchscherer and education director Gwen Keith running the meeting.
One of the challenges that the school division is working through is offering classes online to students as directed by the Ministry of Education. Each teacher has been responsible to be in touch with the students from their classroom, and ensuring they have the means to take part in the online class work.
“Teachers are finding that there are people who don’t have the technology. It’s not as simple as it sounded (from the Ministry’s directive),” said Tuchscherer.
He noted that it is his understanding that handling of paper has a very low risk for the recipients, so for some students they had worksheets delivered instead of a laptop or tablet.
“Going to people’s houses was a concern also,” said Tuchscherer. “That will have to be dealt with.”
He commented that part of the problem is there is a lot of misinformation circulating about what is or is not dangerous in relation to COVID-19.
Keith noted that one piece of good news in relation to doing classes online is that the Saskatchewan Teachers Federation has dropped their sanctions for the time being, so they do not have to work to rule as before classes were shut down.
She also pointed out that all official information from the chief medical officer and the province related to COVID-19 has been put onto Holy Family’s website, so anyone can access the information, along with the procedures that Holy Family has put in place in response to the pandemic.
Keith noted there has been a lot of work with the ministry to enable school divisions to offer classes remotely.
“Not only did we try to retool education to operate remotely, we’ve also had direction from the response planning team (RPT), and some of those are sent on to the parents. Now it’s a more coordinated effort,” she said, adding that the RPT meets on a daily basis to try to resolve any issues that come up each day.
“We want to be totally transparent,” said Keith, noting every bit of information or direction they get on COVID-19 is being shared on the Holy Family website, including every letter sent home to the parents.
Tuchscherer commented that from his point of view, “the staff have done a great job to keep their things going.”
Keith commented there has been a huge difference from the last board meeting, when they were just talking about the possibility of a pandemic coming.
“It’s been the main preoccupation of my time every day,” she said, pointing out that Holy Family’s emphasis on 21st century learning is really paying off now with classes now being offered online to all students.
“We’ve invested in teacher and support training into this area, because we’re so highly linked to so many parties. These guys have come together, working remotely, and we’ve been able to continue to operate,” said Keith, echoing the chairman’s comment, “Our staff have been simply amazing.”
The top priorities for administrators have been the safety of staff, both physical and emotional safety, she added.
• In other Holy Family business, the trustees decided with the staff service awards event not able to be held, central office staff will ask the recipients if the banquet should simply be put off until later, or to have the awards sent to them with the possibility of recognition online.
• The trustees also approved the provincial property education tax mill rates, which were set by the Lieutenant Governor in Council for the 2020 taxation year. The mill rates are unchanged for this year.
• The joint board meeting with the Holy Family and Southeast Cornerstone school boards will be put off until next year.
