The New Westminster school district doesn’t yet know what schools will look like in the fall - but it’s counting on the fact that remote learning may still be part of the picture.
Superintendent Karim Hachlaf updated trustees on the district’s COVID-19 plans at the school board’s operations committee meeting June 9, held remotely via Webex.
After one full week of what the province is terming Stage 3 of its education plans - meaning voluntary part-time, in-class instruction combined with remote learning - the district saw 31% of its elementary school students, or 940 students, return for in-person learning. At the middle school level, 186 students came back, or about 12% of the middle school population.
New Westminster Secondary School saw 70 students return, or only about 4% of its population, while the district’s alternate programs saw nine students (9% of the total) attend in person. (See below for a school-by-school breakdown.)
Hachlaf told trustees the numbers were essentially the same on the first day of the second week, which started June 8. The district is monitoring attendance daily, as it must ensure school capacity doesn’t go past provincial guidelines of 50% for kindergarten to Grade 5 and 20% for grades 6 to 12.
Hachlaf said the district is continuing to work on its Stage 3 operations and also starting to plan for what schools may look like in the fall.
At Stage 2, the province calls for kindergarten to Grade 7 students to be in class five days a week, with grades 8 to 12 returning in-person for only two days per week. Stage 1 would see all students in class five days per week.
“Certainly just having remote learning can pose its challenges,” Hachlaf said. “It certainly has its merits as well, and when we consider a hybrid model, if you look at Stage 2 … there’s an opportunity here, we believe, to really capitalize on both face-to-face instruction and remote instruction.”
Hachlaf said a great deal of planning will need to be done over the summer in preparation for whatever stage the province is at by then.
“It is my belief that the online virtual platform is still going to remain for some time, in some capacity,” he told trustees. “I think we can learn a lot from the work we’re doing. Our staff have done a tremendous job at handling this emergent change. … But, really, we’re looking to make a transition from this crisis management to now taking ownership of the learning environment.”
He said the district appreciates the fact that teachers and support staff have needed to change the way they do their jobs and that more work will have to be done to make sure remote learning tools are used effectively.
“Teaching with technology in the classroom is not the same as using technology completely as a platform for instructional delivery,” he said.
He said the district is looking at new ways of delivering professional development for teachers and that teacher support teams – including district curriculum facilitators and teacher-coaches – are there to help in the process.
“We’re learning as we go, but pleased to say we’re quick learners. We’re moving away from this crisis management strategy and wanting to take a more proactive role now, recognizing that next year may, in fact, look very different,” he said.
New stages of learning will also bring with them new health and safety guidelines for schools, Hachlaf noted. The most current health and safety guidelines for New Westminster schools are posted at the district’s COVID-19 info centre, online at www.newwestschools.ca, and future updates will be added there.
SCHOOL-BY-SCHOOL NUMBERS
School attendance rates for in-person instruction for the first week back (the week of June 1):
Elementary
Connaught Heights: 51 students (30%)
Herbert Spencer: 169 (35%)
Qayqayt: 185 (34%)
F.W. Howay: 48 (44%)
Lord Kelvin: 144 (28%)
Lord Tweedsmuir: 122 (32%)
Queen Elizabeth: 93 (22%)
Richard McBride: 128 (30%)
Middle school
Fraser River: 53 (10%)
Glenbrook: 89 (13%)
Queensborough: 44 (14%)
Secondary and alternate
NWSS: 70 (4%)
RCAP/POWER/SIGMA: 9 (9%)
