The Kamloops-Thompson School District says almost all students are back in school today and tomorrow.

Superintendent Terry Sullivan says 97 per cent of high school students and 95 per cent of elementary students are back in class.

“There will be some changes. There would be parents who did not respond, and there may be some who are looking at the startup and what it’s going to be like before they make a decision”

Sullivan says he suspects even more students will be back in class before Christmas.

“Hopefully we get a vaccine or we isolate the antibodies that are necessary to make us immuned to this virus. When that happens, of course all these students will be coming back. So we have to prepared to have students move from different models. Like distributed learning and homeschooling and so on, and move back into schools.”

Students are doing orientations in their cohorts today and tomorrow, before normal classes restart on Monday.

Sullivan says if a student or staff member is suspected to have COVID-19, their cohort will be isolated.

“If we even suspect a student might have the virus, then we have isolation rooms. We’d isolate them immediately, and then we’d call [Ministry of Health] and their parents of course, to have them involved. And then we would want them tested before they were able to return to school.”

Health and government officials in B.C. have stated that having students learn in classrooms instead of taking courses online is most ideal. Sullivan agrees, and says he understands the apprehension that many parents and students might have about returning to class right now, saying he has a daughter who is a teacher and grandchild in school as well.

“There always is going to be, I think, with a virus that has swept the globe and can have some really devastating effects, there is going to be some anxiety. And what we have done, I think we have done everything we possibly can do. We’ve followed all of the guidelines for school start-up issued by the Provincial Health Officer, Dr. Henry.”