Covid Update, Thursday, January 6th

Parents and Friends of Star of the Sea School,

Although we were required to be open only for students who are children of health care workers and those with exceptional needs, this has been a positive and productive week at Star of the Sea School.  I am writing today to provide you with an update on what’s been going on and our plans for the weeks ahead.

Childcare for Health Care Workers

I am very grateful to our educational assistants and specialty teachers who worked so hard this week providing care to 36 children.  Despite the weather, the students enjoyed a week of meaningful activity which allowed their parents to continue their essential work serving those requiring medical care.

 Preparing for Uncertainty

The classroom teachers and I were very busy as well, preparing for a possibly uncertain next few months.  The teachers have prepared Learning Packages for each student to be used in the event of an immediate closure.  They have also prepared for online learning in the event of a prolonged closure.  I can assure you that we are ready to provide continuity of learning in any situation. 

At this point our greatest concern is the ability to keep the school sufficiently staffed to ensure its safe operation.  If too many staff members are away due to illness or required to self-isolate, we could face a situation where we would have to close all or part of the school.  This is an absolute last resort and a decision that would be made in consultation with our Superintendent.

Health and Safety Plans

Our Health and Safety Committee also met this week to update our Communicable Disease Prevention Plan to include the latest updates from the Ministry of Health.  This plan is available at the school office for anyone who is interested.  There have been very few changes as our previous practices already included most of the recommendations.  The biggest change is that we are going to have to pause the vast majority of parent visitors to the school.  Hot lunch will go on in a modified form that will keep parents completely separate from the student body.  Volunteer basketball coaches will be allowed within strict guidelines.  Other PPP jobs like classroom helpers or library are now completely on hold.

Changes are coming in how Fraser Health will handle Covid-19 case information.  Due to the fast spread of the latest variant, contact tracing is not possible or productive.  Likewise, notifications of individual cases within schools are no longer helpful.  New communication strategies and protocols for schools will be released in the coming days.

What can we do?

The good news is that all reports indicate that the Omicron variant of Covid-19 continues to be mild in the vast majority of people.  Still, the sheer number of cases means that only a small percentage of serious cases is enough to put a strain on our health care system.  As a school, we will continue to do everything we can to slow the spread while letting kids be kids and have a healthy and happy school environment.

Families can do their part by following the public health orders and making sure, most importantly, to do daily health checks and never send a child to school when they are sick.  The mask order remains in place, and we appreciate your help in reinforcing this with your child. 

Differing Opinions

It seems that the longer this goes on, the more passionate and divided people become.  We all have our personal opinions, but my goal is to create an environment at school where kids can feel safe and happy, not worrying about the world’s bigger problems.  As adults, we can do our part by setting a good example to our kids.  When we disagree with others, we should at least assume their good intentions.  When all this is over, we should be able to look back and be proud of how we treated each other.

Thank you for your continued support of Star of the Sea School.

Sincerely,

Mr. Jason Borkowski

Principal