The Chilliwack School District is hosting a virtual townhall meeting to discuss return-to-class protocols with families.
The meeting will be hosted by the district’s senior administration team and is meant for parents and guardians to learn more about the district’s plans. The district team will talk about what to expect in the upcoming school year locally and provide opportunities for parents to ask questions.
Parents who want to submit questions beforehand can submit them to rohan_arul@sd33.bc.ca, before Wednesday, Sept. 2. The moderator for the meeting will be Rohan Arul-pragasam, the interim school superintendent. The event will be hosted on Zoom and pre-registration is required. There is limit to participants via Zoom of 500 people (Note: previously the limit was 300).
READ MORE: Chilliwack school district releases back-to-school protocols
School will operate differently in September, to allow for all of the safety precautions mandated by Provincial Health. There will be staggered start and stop times for learning cohorts, directional arrows and protocols for entering and exiting schools including pick-up and drop-off guidelines, changes in how water fountains are used, and strict rules about illnesses.
The school district released its overall plan on Aug. 27 outlining all of these changes (see pdf below). One of the biggest changes to the educational landscape in Chilliwack will be the introduction of the octet semester system for Grade 9 through 12. Secondary students will be focusing on just one course at a time, with two blocks in a shortened day. After about 22 school days, the semester will end and they will move onto another course.
This is intended to limit the spread of infection if someone is sick, and to make contact tracing easier.
In the event that the pandemic worsens over the year, school could be closed once again, the district has warned.
The townhall meeting will be held on Sep. 2 at 6 p.m.
Chilliwack School District ... by Jess Peters
@CHWKcommunity
jpeters@theprogress.com
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