The President of the Kamloops-Thompson Teachers Association says teachers across the district are a little anxious as kids are back in class for the winter semester.
Laurel Macpherson says its because the COVID-19 case counts in Interior Health have been gradually increasing in recent weeks.
“We can’t pretend that Kamloops is protected, that we are not going to get hit by exposures. We’ve been very fortunate that we haven’t had the numbers that Surrey has had,” she said. “We’re just hopeful that we don’t see an increase in exposures and that people can teach and kids can come to school and its going to be safe.”
Macpherson says teachers are also anxious because of an increased workload since they have to implement COVID-19 protocols, while continuing to teach their classes.
“The biggest thing for us has been the enforcement of mask usage and that they have a curriculum that they have to cover, and is there enough time because especially in the elementary, when you got kids washing their hands, it takes time out of the curriculum and just that added pressure to do it all sometimes is very overwhelming for teachers,” she added,
The latest data from the BC Centre for Disease Control shows there were 68 cases reported in the Kamloops area during the week of Dec. 27 to Jan. 2 – the largest weekly total for the area since the pandemic began. Further, as of the end of December, there were 346 cases in the Kamloops area.
Macpherson says it shows people in Kamloops cannot let their guard down.
“You know with all these uncertainties and with the guidelines in place, everybody is trying to do their job, they are trying to do their due diligence, but there are always concerns and as concerns come up, we address them with the district and we try and find results for things that we think could be done better,” she added.
There are no active exposures in any SD73 schools at the moment – but there were five over the fall semester at NorKam Secondary, Westsyde Secondary, Rayleigh Elementary, Aberdeen Elementary, and at the Kamloops School of the Arts.
Board chair Rhonda Kershaw previously told NL News that despite dealing with so much in 2020 – including the onset of the pandemic to trying to safely get kids back into class – there is reason to be positive in 2021.
“We just have to look at the positives and start 2021 with a really positive attitude and like you said vaccines are coming, hopefully we will get back to some sense of life as normal and we’ll just keep working towards our goals which is the best education for students,” Kershaw said.
