News Centre

Dear CBE Families

As the 2019-20 school year draws to a close, we would like to thank you once again for your continued understanding and support. These last few months have been challenging for all of us, and we could not have done it without you! We also thank our teachers and staff for all of their hard work to ensure that students stayed connected to learning while the delivery of quality education continued from home.

I also want to provide some more information about our re-entry plans and some reminders before we break for the summer.

2020-21 School Year

We continue to work on our planning for what the next school year will look like for students and staff. We will have more information in August after the Minister of Education announces which re-entry scenario schools will follow. We are hopeful that we will be returning to Scenario 1, or near-normal conditions, but we must be prepared for all three scenarios below.

Scenario 1 – in-school classes resume, near-normal operations with health measures
Scenario 2 – in-school classes partially resume with additional health measures
Scenario 3 – at-home learning continues, in-school classes are cancelled

Regardless of the re-entry decision, we know that things will look a bit different in our schools in September. While we cannot eliminate all COVID-19 risk, schools will implement measures to minimize risk. This includes:

• Where possible, creating cohorts or groups of students and teachers who will stay together throughout the day;
• Increasing the frequency of cleaning and disinfection of high-touch areas and equipment;
• Identifying ways to engage in valuable courses where additional health protocols must be followed (e.g. physical education, music classes), and ensuring cleaning of equipment that may be shared by multiple students (e.g. computers, gym equipment)
• Creating regular routines to support hand hygiene and coughing/sneezing etiquette;
• Enforcing a strict illness policy. Anyone showing signs of sickness will not be allowed on buses or in schools. This means families will need to ensure they have back-up childcare available if their child is unable to attend school;
• Changing pick-up and drop-off routines for parents to support physical distancing student safety while entering or exiting the building;
• Using spaces such as gyms and libraries to deliver education programs to aid in physical distancing;

• Developing new procedures for students using yellow school buses, including assigned seating and how students get on and off the bus; and
• Organizing and planning to apply protocols and online instruction allowing us to move between different scenarios if required.

We will communicate with families after the Aug. 1 announcement is made. Before classes begin, we will have more details about how things will look in specific schools to share with families. Please ensure your school has your correct email address so you don’t miss out on messages. Watch the CBE website for more updates and follow us on Twitter (@yycbedu).

Survey Results

Thank you to everyone who participated in the re-entry student, staff and parent surveys. We had more than 73,000 responses.

Some highlights of the survey results include:

• Parents, students and staff are somewhat comfortable with returning to in-person classes in the fall.
• All groups were split on whether online learning worked well overall this spring.
• 76 per cent of students indicate they have been very or somewhat comfortable with online learning.

The full results of the parent and student surveys are available on our website. The perspectives shared through this survey will be considered as we finalize our plans for the next school year.

Yellow School Bus Registration – Deadline is June 30

This is the last call for yellow school bus transportation registration. As we plan for additional health restrictions that may be implemented due to Covid-19, students will not be able to ride the yellow school bus unless they have registered in advance. This year routes will not be available online and only registered families will get stop information. If you think your child may be riding the bus next year, please register. You do not have to pay now, and you can change your mind with no financial penalty if you decide to make different travel arrangements after routes and travel details are released. Register by June 30.

Once again, we thank you for your support and we wish you all a restful and safe summer.

Christopher Usih
Chief Superintendent of Schools