On Wednesday, May 6th, Alberta's Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange announced that schools will remain suspended until the end of the 2019-2020 school year. After many schools have switched to online lessons, the announcement doesn’t come as a surprise to Central Alberta’s schools.

“I think going back to early March, it’s what Dr. Hinshaw had recommended. If we were going to be out it was going to be more than a few weeks she had indicated that it would probably be to the end of the year. I keep saying to everybody, we will listen to Dr. Hinshaw, she is a Rockstar, so what she says goes,” said Red Deer Public Schools Superintendent, Stu Henry.  

Henry noted that it would be challenging to get health and safety programs in place in schools on such short notice for what would only be another month of classes, as many schools soon heading into the summer break. 

“The one piece that I am not sure everyone has thought of is even just making sure we have all our bus drivers back in place so we can get the kids to and from school would likely take a number of weeks. It does make sense at this point that they made that determination,” explained Henry. 

Henry says the school division is well prepared to continue on with the rest of classes through online programming though believes it is no comparison to regular in-person classes. So far, Henry says online classes were challenging at first, but teachers and students have adjusted well to the change. 

“It’s certainly been an adjustment for everyone around. There’s no replacement for our regular face to face instruction but everybody is doing their best. We’ve been really encouraged to hear the stories that families are connecting with their kids over education. It’s been mostly good stories,” said Henry. 

As a positive result from the online classes, the superintendent is finding that parents are spending more time getting involved with what their children are learning at school. 

Of course, switching to online classes provided problems of its’ own for the division. Some students were unable to gain access to devices to attend their classes, others didn’t have Wi-Fi. Additional supports had to be set up for those students to learn. 

“We have lent out over 1000 Chromebooks, little laptops for any students who need them. We want to make sure that’s not a barrier at all. For some of the families that don’t have Wi-Fi access, we’ve been able to secure little USB sticks that actually give them internet access for a few months here. We just wanted to make sure there’s no excuses for any child not to be learning,” said Henry. 

The government of Alberta has proposed three scenarios for the 2020-2021 school year including regular operation, partial-openings with restrictions, or continuing on with teacher-directed at-home learning. Henry is confident students will be able to return to school in some capacity next fall.

“I think the most likely scenario is we are going to be back but we will have to follow Alberta’s Health guidelines. Of course, that will create all sorts of implications and challenges but we want the children back just as badly as the parents do and so we will work through those challenges and make the best of things,” added Henry.