(file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Glenn Hicks

back to school

Sask. Rivers schools will innovate amid COVID protocols: Bratvold

Aug 6, 2020 | 6:26 PM

The director of education for the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division said they are ready to welcome students back Sept. 1 and have measures in place to allay fears around the COVID-19 pandemic.

Time for excitement

However, Robert Bratvold is also shedding a positive light on what he figures should be an exciting time for students, albeit with the obvious health and safety realities as they head toward the start of a new school year.

“I don’t want to seem flippant or unrealistic, and I know there’s lots of concerns out there, but I also am excited about the start of a new school year,” he told paNOW. “I get excited every year and this one is quite different – there’s no question about that – but there’s going to be some great things happening this school year too.”

The political debate in this province this week has been dominated by questions like should masks be mandatory in schools and should classes be smaller. Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer says that doesn’t need to happen and the government is leaving much of the on-the-ground decision making to districts. The opposition NDP has attacked the government’s back to school plan for not offering further protocols to what school districts have already come up with.

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Local solutions

Meanwhile, Bratvold said provincial health guidelines will be followed and protocols will be in place to ensure student safety while acknowledging he’s hearing concerns from some parents about why face masks aren’t mandatory or what can be done to address their child’s specific medical needs. But, he also expects each of the diverse schools in the district – which accommodate varying numbers of students – to come up with inventive ways of getting through the school day safely such as blending in-person learning with possible aspects like virtual assemblies for example.

“Really, I think the creativity and innovation will come out within the individual schools… responding to local contexts and needs rather than a prescriptive ‘here’s what everybody shall do’ kind of approach,” he said.

Bratvold said it was realistic to expect some parents with concerns would not send their kids initially but figured the majority would be there for the Sept. 1 restart.

“I also think once some time goes by and there’s some proof in the pudding that yep, schools can operate safely, that parents will see there are some things in place to help allay their fears,” he said.

Learning gap

Perhaps lost in the current political arguing is the most important element of schooling: learning. That’s very much on Bratvold’s mind noting there was supplemental learning for a few months after the COVID closures and then the summer vacation.

“There’s going to be a substantial learning gap… some students could do the supplemental learning and others could not,” he said. “There’s some learning needs we’re all going to have to attend to and we’ll be ready for that.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow