Tuesday April 28, 2020 ~ WEST SHORE & SOOKE
by Mary Brooke ~ West Shore Voice News
All of public education in BC as it was pre-COVID-19 is behind us now, at least for 2020 and possibly into 2021. The world is adjusting to the conditions of the infectious viral pandemic that in the management of “BC’s pandemic” has forced communities and the economy into a modified form of lockdown.
While schools have continued to operate in Sooke School District 62 (SD62) in support of the children of essential workers and the most vulnerable students (those with learning challenges and also those whose families are supported with meals), most of SD62’s over 11,000 students have been continuing their educational experience from their home base.
Remote learning has been a combination of many forms of contact between teacher and students, with part of that being online learning but with curriculum being delivered in a variety of ways as suited to the student, family situation, and available resources as well as the teacher’s choices of which tools and methods to use.
For Grade 12 students in their final year of the K-12 education system, this has produced some challenges and distinct processes to deal with as they complete their schooling and as many prepare for transition to post-secondary.
Grade 12’s will at first have heard on March 17 when Education Minister Rob Fleming announced the cancellation of in-classroom learning that graduation would not be happening in the usual way. Dreams of proms in grand ballrooms, graduation ceremonies with family in the audience, parties at the beach, and signing yearbooks with friends — all of that is now locked in a bubble of time not lived, but soon to be morphed into something else.
Due to the social distancing and no-crowd-gathering orders of the Provincial Health Officer, big events with lots of people cannot happen. As part of working within those parameters, SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson will be leading a group that will come up with some creative and student-supported solutions for Grad 2020.
“This is certainly a tough time for our soon-to-be graduates,” said SD62 Chair Ravi Parmar at tonight’s SD62 board meeting.
Parmar noted from Superintendent Stinson’s report that “staff are working on a plan to support graduates, and that there are potential end of the year graduation ceremonies, and other commencement opportunities, and developing a plan for that in consultation with students for students”.
During question period at this evening’s board meeting, West Shore Voice News editor Mary Brooke asked through the online chat: “What does year-end look like for Grade 12 students? Will there be any graduation events (physically distanced in person, and/or online)? And how has the scholarship application process been proceeding for Grade 12 students looking to post-secondary this fall?”
Chair Parmar said the Superintendent has convened a committee to look at not only graduation and commencement ceremonies but also other transitions — the ones not only for students leaving the system but Kindergarten students coming into the system, new students that transition from elementary to middle school, and middle school to secondary school.
Parmar continued, that regarding Grade 12, the review process will include engaging with student district council, and other groups. “But ultimately this is a challenging time for Grade 12’s,” said Parmar.
“We are not going to be making any decisions lightly and it’s going to be with the mindset of what we can do to support our Grade 12’s to ensure that they get the support they need in terms of graduation ceremonies,” said Parmar.
On the matter of scholarship applications for students graduating from Belmont Secondary School (Langford), Royal Bay Secondary (Colwood), and Edward Milne Community School (Sooke), Stinson said:
“We have been working with each of our secondary schools to ensure that the scholarship application process continues forward. We’ve extended the deadline slightly. But all of those applications have been coming into the secondary schools through the scholarship sponsors that are at those sites and everything seems to be moving forward well. Students are still being able to apply and those will be awarded to them.”
Associate Superintendent Paul Block reported that a student population increase of 411 students is expected for September 2020, which is a similar number to what was being forecast back at the March 10 board meeting before the pandemic hit.
Even though Kindergarten registration for September 2020 (as held in January of this year) was robust, there was brief mention about whether Kindergarten participation would be affected this fall (with BC still under some form of COVID-19 pandemic response, given that there is no vaccine for the virus).
Trustees attending the first-ever remote-participation SD62 board meeting in person were Ravi Parmar and Wendy Hobbs. Participating remotely were all the other trustees: Bob Beckett, Bob Phillips, Dianna Seaton, Margot Swinburnson, and Allison Watson.
Senior staff in the room for the meeting were Secretary-Treasurer Harold Cull and Associate Superintendent Paul Block. Senior staff attending remotely were Associate Superintendents Stephanie Hedley-Smith and Dave Strange.