Tuesday April 6, 2021 | WEST SHORE, BC
by Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Editor | Island Social Trends
Over the two-week school spring break and then again over this past Easter long weekend there were potential COVID exposures in schools on Vancouver Island.
In the west shore, Sooke School District 62 has now seen exposures in schools (as posted by Island Health) situated within Langford (Belmont Secondary and Lakewood Elementary ) and within Colwood (Royal Bay Secondary, Dunsmuir Middle, and David Cameron Elementary). So far there have been no school exposures reported by Island Health for Sooke (which is at the other end of the SD62 footprint).
SD62 serves over 11,000 students with the educational and other support services that are delivered through public education.
Given the student population and the continued strident pace of the COVID-19 pandemic overall, SD62 leadership was expecting to see some exposures.
“We expected to see a possible increase in exposures as we returned from spring break,” said SD62 Superintendent Scott Stinson today in a statement received by Island Social Trends.
“Our school district has strict cleaning protocols and procedures in place and we are confident our parents will continue to be diligent with the daily health checks of their children,” said Stinson. “Our families have been great by keeping their children home if sick and we are very appreciative of that.”
Education Policy Committee:
Tonight Tuesday April 6 (6 pm live online through the SD62 website) the SD62 Education Policy Committee may hear further comments from the Superintendent or committee members about the COVID scenario in SD62 schools, within their usual agenda about a wide range of educational issues.
The Ed Policy Committee used to be chaired by long-time trustee Bob Phillips but recently changed over to being chaired by first-term trustee Allison Watson. Both Phillips and Watson are elected from the Milne’s Landing Zone (Sooke area), whereas the Resource Committee tends to be guided by the Belmont Zone trustees (committee chair is former Langford Fire Chief Bob Beckett, and the former committee chair was Trustee Dianna Seaton who still sits on the committee).
The SD62 Board Chair is Ravi Parmar (Belmont Zone).
===== RELATED:
How to Book Your Vaccination Appointment – online, phone, in person (April 6, 2021)
COVID exposures and cases in BC & Island Health over the Easter 2021 long weekend (April 4, 2021)
Island Health shares AstraZeneca supply with Lower Mainland (April 1, 2021)
===== ABOUT THE WRITER:
Mary P Brooke, B.Sc., Cert PR is the editor and publisher of Island Social Trends, serving a regional readership within the South Vancouver Island area and a BC/national readership on broader socioeconomic issues. Ms Brooke has covered the news of SD62 on the west shore since 2014 at the board and committee level. Discourse on Twitter at @IslandSocTrends. Mary is the mother of four grown children who over the years received their K-12 public education in SD61, SD62 and SD72.