What has likely been the weirdest ever school year in B.C. history has come to an end, and the province’s top doctor says her office is looking ahead to September.
Dr. Bonnie Henry says the hope is that schools can be back to normal for the 2020-21 school year.
“Much depends on what happens between now and then as well. That’s why we need to plan for contingencies,” she said. “If we start to see a whole lot more cases as we are going into September, hopefully we won’t if we keep doing what we are doing, but that will be one of the considerations about how it looks going back to school.”
Henry says her office is working together with the Ministry of Education to look at things that worked and things that did not this past month as students returned to in-person classes on a part-time basis.
“While we would love to see full back to school for everybody, we also need to think about how do we ensure that we have safe distances, that we can do it in a way that minimizes the risk of outbreaks,” Henry noted.
“Whether that’s cohorting in smaller numbers and classrooms and things [like that], there’s a whole bunch of things that we are looking at.”
Schools in B.C. were closed in the middle of March because of COVID-19. It reopened at the start of June with a hybrid model of some in-class and some online learning. Across School District 73, Board Chair Kathleen Karpuk says there were fairly strong attendance numbers reported, while the teacher’s union too noted they are addressing concerns as they come up.
Over the four week experiment, two adults linked to schools in the Fraser Valley tested positive for COVID-19 – a teacher at a separate school last week and a public school teacher this week.
Henry says some studies have shown that the risk of the virus spreading between children and from children to adults remains low.
“There’s a good study out of the Netherlands that showed that children generally don’t pass on to adults and even rarely pass on to children, and we’ve had some similar data being analyzed in B.C.,” she said. “But when that’s finalized, we’ll present that as well.”
During her Thursday COVID-19 update, Henry also commended teachers, staff, and students for persevering during the pandemic, and the return to school.
“Congratulations,” she said to students. “You’ve made it through one of the most challenging years that I’m sure any of us will ever remember. Have a wonderful summer and remember to be safe.”
Education Minister Rob Fleming previously said that the mix of in-class and online learning for B.C. students likely to continue until COVID-19 vaccine is widely available.