INNISFAIL - Although moving Grade 7 to 12 students to online classes earlier this week does not represents an “ideal learning environment,” Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) is confident that learning will not be negatively impacted, says superintendent Kurt Sacher.
Under new provincial COVID-19 measures announced last week, all Grade 7-12 students, with some exemptions, will be receiving their instruction online instead of in classrooms until at least Jan. 11. About 5,000 CESD students will be impacted.
The division would have preferred that face-to-face, in person instruction could have continued, he said.
“From a learning point of view we are disappointed, but we understand where government is coming from,” said Sacher. “We all need to do our part to try to slow the spread and the school division is willing to join government.
“It’s not an ideal learning platform. The good news is we learning a lot from the last time we tried to do it (online). We are still allowed to move forward with our essential learning outcomes.
“Our teachers are highly skilled and they are going to do their very best, so I’m confident we’ll get through it. It’s not ideal but its the best we can do in this particular environment we are in.”
Teachers will be continuing to attend schools, where they will conduct their online classes using school facilities, he said.
“We are going to set it up so they can use the resources in the schools and deliver the online learning from the workplace,” he said.
While most Grade 7-12 students will now be learning remotely, there will be some students in those grades who will remain in classes, including disabled students and Career High students, he said.
“Any student essentially where his or her needs cannot be fully met in an online environment, we’ve been allowed to give special consideration for and if necessary allow them to remain in the school. We will work with them inside the schools.”
Planning for the move to online was underway for number of weeks, he said.
“We have been preparing to the online platform for quite some time,” he said. “We experimented with it from March to June, so teachers are familiar with it and we’ve learned a lot since then. We feel we are ready to move to that system-wide.”
Asked if the division will be laying off any bus drivers or others during the switch to online, he said no.
The switchover to online isn’t expected to cost the division anything more than if classes had remained in-person, he said.
Younger kindergarten to Grade 6 students will remain in classes until Dec. 18, when they will be off on Christmas break until Jan. 11.
“It will be business as usual there,” he said.
The Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools division includes schools in Olds and Innisfail. Superintendent Kathleen Finnigan says the division will be adhering to the new provincial directives, including having Grade 7-12 students studying online starting this week.
“Our actions can help prevent the spread of COVID-19 and are essential to keeping our communities safe,” she said.
