The Creighton School Division announced their own back-to-school plan August 5, working off guidance from the provincial government guidelines announced a day earlier.
The division, which maintains and operates Creighton Community School, detailed their plan in a 21-page document which paints a deeper picture of what the next school year may look like.
All students will be required to attend classes, but if a family chooses to not send their kids, “appropriate content and learning opportunities” will be sent to the family, according to the plan. Any students and staff showing COVID-19 symptoms are asked to stay home, including fever, cough, headache, body aches, sore throat, difficulty breathing, loss of sense of smell or taste and others. A quarantine room will be set up at the school to keep any student showing symptoms until they can be picked up and brought home, as per new provincial regulations.
Students in the Grades 7-12 section of the school will be kept out of the K- Grade 6 area of the school unless they’re picking up a younger sibling in pre-K or Kindergarten.
In classrooms, desks will either be moved or physical barriers will be set up between students at tables. Social distancing for elementary and middle school students is considered “less practical” in the plan, with the focus instead being on reducing touch and physical contact. Younger students will receive specific instruction on COVID-19-related knowledge, including social distancing.
Teachers are asked to plan for “reduced physical contact activities”. Electronic devices shared between students are to be sanitized between each use. Hand sanitizer approved by Health Canada will be provided at the school.
Times for class starts, recess and lunch breaks will be altered for each grade. Students will enter the school through one of three designated entrances at staggered times.
Grade 1-3 students will be let in at 8:40 a.m. at one of three separate entrances - Grade 1 at the board office door, Grade 2 at the elementary door and Grade 3 at the 4-5 tarmac door - and will go for lunch from 11:30 a.m.-12:25 p.m.
Grades 4-6 will enter 10 minutes after the Grades 1-3 students. Grade 4 will enter through the tarmac doors, while Grades 5 and 6 will enter through the board office and teacher parking lot doors respectively. Students will leave for lunch from 11:55 a.m.-12:50 p.m.
Grades 7-9 will enter at the main and parking doors at 8:40 a.m., while Grades 10-12 will enter through the same doors at 8:50 a.m. Neither group will see any changes in their lunch time or door use. Students are asked to go home for lunch whenever possible, but markers and stickers will be put up in the school’s lunch room for anyone eating at the school.
Assigned seating on buses will be back in effect and students will be grouped together by grade - younger students in the front, older in the back. Parents are asked to bring their kids to school whenever possible. Buses will be scrubbed clean and sanitized after every run.
The school’s library will be open, but will be restricted to certain grades on certain days, all books will be isolated for three days before going back on shelves
Recess will be broken into two groups, first for Grades 1-3, then for Grades 4-6. Three separate areas of play will be used, one for each grade, each monitored by teachers.
Field trips will not be allowed by the Creighton School Division, while extra-curricular plans are not yet known and will have to be approved by the division at a later date.
Mask use will not be mandatory for teachers or students at Creighton School. The only situation where mask use is mandatory is when a teacher or staff member comes in close contact with a possibly sick student or in any situation when a mask may have been used pre-pandemic.
No announcements of reduced class sizes to help reduce spread are included in the plan.
If a sick student is reported at the school, the staff member who first identifies symptoms will have to contact school administration while keeping their own distance. Administrators will don masks and eye protection provided by the school while bringing the student to an isolation area in the school’s main office. Parents or guardians will be contacted to pick up the student immediately. Once the student is taken home, custodians will sanitize any areas the student may have touched and the isolation room.
The full document can be found at creightonschooldivision.com.
