When kids in Kamloops and elsewhere around B.C. return to class in the fall, they will not be in cohorts like this past school year.

“Based on guidance of the provincial health officer, students will no longer be grouped into cohorts or learning groups,” Education Minister, Jennifer Whiteside said.

“Pending a further public health guidance its also expected that current restrictions on gatherings, extra curricular activities and sports will be relaxed in time for the new school year.”

Earlier this month, Kamloops-Thompson School District Superintendent Terry Sullivan told NL News that cohorts would be done away with, but daily health checks would remain in place.

“[So far] there’s been no commitment with respect to the requirement to wear a mask in schools,” Sullivan said.

Whiteside noted today that guidance on the use of masks in schools will be coming later this summer adding it will align with broader provincial direction. As part of B.C.’s Restart Plan, mask wearing is mandatory until Step 3 kicks in on July 1 at the earliest. At that point, masks will be recommended.

In Step 4, which will kick in no sooner than Sept. 7, masks will be a personal choice as people return to normal social contacts. Sept. 7 is also the first day back for kids across SD73.

B.C.’s top doctor says public health teams will continue to work with schools to make sure they are ready for a “typical return” in September

“Even when things were very much influx through many parts of this past year, it has not always been easy but the adaptability and resilience, and strength of our school community and youth has really shone through here in B.C.,” Dr. Bonnie Henry said.

Henry says health officials will be watching cases in schools in the fall, and make changes as needed.

“We’ll be looking at still some of those crowding points, making sure that the mixing and mingling in the hallways is still measured, so that might mean timing of classes, timing of people coming and going, how many people come into the school on a daily basis,” she added.

“Our goal, in particular for our schools, is to get to the point that we can take the same approach that we do now with other communicable diseases whether its influenza or measles where we can manage them on a local basis, on an individual basis without having those broad impacts on society that we have had this past year.”

Meanwhile, the BC Teachers Federation says while it is pleased to hear about the ‘near normal’ plan for return to the classroom in the fall there are still a lot of concerns.

President Teri Mooring says first and foremost she’ll be anxious to see the vaccination rate for those 12 to 17….

“Right now it’s at 50 per cent but we haven’t seen a regional break down so there could be a need for a regional approach next year like we were advocating for this year when it came to mask wearing for example,” she said.

Mooring also says there needs to be more funding to install proper ventilation systems for classrooms.

And she insists there should be a transitional program offered to students who aren’t quite ready to return full time to the classroom.

More provincial funding to support health and safety measures

As part of the restart, the Province is providing $43.6 million to support ongoing health and safety measures.

Most of that amount – $25.6 million – is new one-time, pandemic-specific funding to support ongoing enhanced cleaning measures like cleaning and disinfecting, hand hygiene, to improve ventilation, and to restock supplies of personal protection equipment (PPE).

“There are provisions in this funding to continue to bolster the cleaning and districts will make decisions based on how to allocate those amounts best to address their local situations,” Whiteside said.

The province says the rest of the money will help strengthen the commitments it has made with First Nations and Métis students while also providing more mental health supports for students and staff.

– With files from CKNW Vancouver