NOTE: This story was updated at 6:55 p.m. Aug. 26 with some new information from the school district.
A new “quarter” system at New Westminster Secondary School and expanded online learning options are among the key elements of the New Westminster school district’s back-to-school plans.
Karim Hachlaf, the district’s superintendent, hosted a townhall meeting Monday, Aug. 24 to address parents’ questions about the return to school this fall in the face of rising COVID-19 numbers around the province.
The district’s full back-to-school plan is now online at https://newwestschools.ca/the-plan-phase-2-return-to-schools/
“I know the unknowns of what September will look like has caused a great deal of stress,” Hachlaf told parents at the townhall, noting he too is a parent, with one child in elementary school and two at secondary school. “We’re navigating some challenging times with September start-up.”
Through the townhall, Hachlaf addressed parents’ pre-submitted questions about health and safety protocols (see related story here), school scheduling and alternative options for families not wanting to return to class.
As per provincial mandates, elementary schools are limited to “learning groups” of no more than 60, while high schools are limited to no more than 120, and Hachlaf noted New West has been able to stay below those numbers. Elementary school cohorts will have a maximum of 30, while middle school cohorts will max at 60, and NWSS will see cohorts of no more than 90 to 100.
Hachlaf said some sites will use staggered recess and lunch times to help accommodate the need for physical distancing and to help keep the designated learning groups separate. School principals will send out specific school schedules to families by Friday, Aug. 28.
The biggest scheduling challenges, of course, came at NWSS, where the administration had to grapple with how to coordinate the schedules of 2,000 students.
Some parents had questioned whether the district might be able to make more space by using both the existing school and the replacement NWSS, which is approaching completion on the same site. Hachlaf said that plan is “highly unlikely” due to building occupancy regulations.
However, he assured parents that the new school construction project has rebounded well from previous COVID-19-related delays and the district is optimistic about moving students in during the 2020/21 school year – dependent, of course, upon what happens with the COVID-19 situation globally as the year progresses.
In the meantime, with students housed in the existing NWSS building, Grade 9 students will continue to have their classes offered on a semester model – something Hachlaf said the district wanted to do to help with a smoother transition from middle school.
Students will attend class in-person four days a week, with real-time remote learning offered on Wednesdays.
For grades 10, 11 and 12, the district is shifting to a 10-week quarter system. Students will have two courses per quarter and four quarters per year, with a morning class and an afternoon class each running slightly shy of three hours.
There will be two half-day remote days per grade, with scheduling dependent upon each student’s course load.
Keeping to a semester system would have required the district to “severely restrict” students’ elective course choices, Hachlaf said, and the district wasn’t willing to do that.
Giving all students the equivalent of one day of remote instruction will allow the school to maintain better physical distancing, Hachlaf said – citing the photos of crowded hallways in American schools and assuring parents that won’t be the case at NWSS.
For those who remain nervous about sending students to school because of immune suppression issues, Hachlaf urged parents to contact their school principal directly.
“Even students with immune-compromised systems can very much attend school,” Hachlaf said, noting the provincial health officer has given direction to that effect.
But, he said, in those rare circumstances where a student or family member is severely immune-compromised, a doctor’s note will be required to help set up a program for that particular student. Those will be determined on a case-by-case basis.
Hachlaf also laid out three options for parents of any students, regardless of grade or medical situation, who don’t wish to return to class.
There’s homeschooling, in which parents would take complete charge of their child’s education.
“Homeschooling is not what happened in June,” Hachlaf said, noting parents would be removed from the school system altogether. “We’re not encouraging parents to leave us and home school, but we’re respecting your decision.”
Alternatively, Hachlaf noted, there’s the Hume Park Home Learners Program, a teacher-led, distributed-learning program that has parents partner on their children’s education. There is currently space in that program, but Hachlaf noted that increased demand may mean that new registrations would rely on a lottery system.
Third, the district has expanded its online learning program, previously offered for high school and adult students, to include a newly developed kindergarten-to-Grade 8 program. The online program includes real-time remote learning supplemented by videos and independent work.
Hachlaf said it’s up to parents to decide whether that form of learning would work for their family.
“Parents/guardians should consider the learning needs of their child, their level of independence as learners and the availability of parents/guardians to provide support when accessing this approach to instruction,” as a write-up from the district notes.
Students in grades 9 through 12 can choose to pursue one or more courses online.
The district has made one significant change this year for families who opt out of regular, in-class instruction. Typically, once a family has made a choice to embark on a remote or online program, the student would lose their spot in their local school.
This year, the school district will honour students’ places in their regular school for the 2021/22 school year even if they choose to leave on a temporary basis.
Kristen Keighley-Wight, district communications manager, told the Record that decision was important to the district.
“It was our aim to be as flexible as we could, where possible, and we clearly heard from families who valued their connection their local school and wanted to maintain that for their kids,” she said.
There are a couple of caveats, however.
Spots can not be held in programs of choice such as Montessori or French immersion, and families who choose to opt out of regular in-class learning will not be guaranteed a chance to opt back in part way through the year.
"We also want to be clear with parents who need to make informed decisions: as it affects staffing and cohorts, we can not currently guarantee a return to that school within this school year if the situation changes," Keighley-Wight told the Record.
The school district is urging parents with questions to reach out to [email protected].
“We want families to know that we are going to continue to work with parents every step of the way,” Hachlaf told the Record Wednesday. “ This is an evolving situation, and we want to do our best to support our students and their families. We want to be really upfront about what we know we can guarantee, but where we can, we’ll do our best to accommodate the needs people have.”
Watch www.newwestschools.ca for all the details as the district’s plans and schedules are finalized.
Hachlaf noted the district is considering how it might be able to allow students to transition back to regular in-class learning during the year but noted the plan raises “considerable issues” with staffing and logistics and so will depend very much on interest levels and numbers.
