Dear TCRCE Community,
On Tuesday, November 24, 2020, the Province announced enhanced restrictions to deal with the increasing numbers of COVID-19 cases.
As we prepare for the enhanced COVID-19 safety measures being enacted in the Halifax area, we know families and staff have questions about what school will look like for them and their children. As of today, all schools in our region will remain open. It is also important to remember that there are no cases of COVID-19 originating within our schools.
We know you have many questions; our commitment is to keep you informed. We will be providing additional updates as needed. For today, please know we are taking our direction directly from Public Health and the experts at IWK Health Centre. Keeping our kids learning and in schools is the advice of these experts. They tell us school is the best place for children, where students can learn, be with their peers and socialize with their friends in a learning environment. Additionally, for many, schools provide much needed access to programs and services, like food and mental health supports that are especially important for our vulnerable students.
To support Public Health and our communities, the following changes are taking place in our school system: there will be no extracurricular activities between schools. This means, all travelling for school sports is now suspended. Intramurals and practices are still currently permitted at individual schools only.
We are reminding students and staff to continue public health measures such as enhanced hand sanitization and hand washing, proper mask wearing, cohorting, etc.
As Dr. Strang has said many times, the way to keep our schools safe is by keeping our communities safe. That’s why it is vitally important that we all work together to practice safe COVID-19 measures in our daily lives so that our children continue to have a healthy and safe learning environment. Our schools continue to follow the Back to School Plan, that includes many public health measures that were developed following advice from Public Health, input from teachers, principals, union leaders, public health officials and medical professionals at the IWK Health Centre. We will continue to be flexible with our plan and follow Public Health’s direction to keep our schools safe and students learning.
As COVID-19 continues to challenge and test our ability to stay safe and to learn, it is our staff who have gone above and beyond to keep students learning. Now, more than ever, we need you to continue supporting students at school, maintaining your high-level of professionalism through uncertain times.
Thank you to our school communities across the province for your ongoing support and dedication through this once-in-a-century pandemic. Together, we will get through this.
Sincerely,
Dr. Chris Boulter, Regional Executive Director
