Back to School – Letter from Principal
Dear ERS Families,
Good afternoon! I hope that you have all had an opportunity to enjoy our beautiful region over the past few months. We are very fortunate to be living in an area that is full of so many outdoor opportunities. As a staff, we are very excited to have students back to school starting Thursday, September 10th.
The Ministry of Education’s announcement of cohort sizes of 60 students (middle school) and 120 students (high school) has led to significant timetable changes throughout the Province. At ERS, we will have 2 cohorts – we will have a Grade 7-8 cohort and a Grade 9-12 cohort. The groups will be able to mix but physical distancing and masks will be a requirement.
To limit student-student and staff-student contact, we have decided to operate under a ¼ system this school year. Students will focus on 2 courses at a time instead of 4 courses. This means that students will take two classes at a time (for Term 1, which is from September to November) and these two classes will meet every school day for 10 weeks. The start and end times of our school day will not change (Start – 9:12 am, End – 3:36). After 10 weeks, Term 2 (November to January) will commence and students will take another two classes. The school year will have 4 terms.
Even though students completed course selections in March and they were scheduled into courses in June, there is still some tweaking needed to ensure that students have complete and balanced timetables. We will be finalizing timetables this week and early next week – after this process has been completed we will be able to share student timetables with you.
In addition to rescheduling students, we are busy developing site-specific safety procedures to ensure that we are providing the safest environment possible for our students and staff. For example, we will have separate entrances for each cohort and floor markings will be installed to direct traffic flow in the hallways.
As a result of a Ministry announcement last week, students and staff will now have to wear a mask when they are not in their classrooms with their cohort. This means that students and staff will have to wear masks in the hallways (at all times) and in areas where they may be mixing with another cohort.
Please refer to this link if you are interested in learning more about the new guidelines from the Ministry of Education:
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/covid-19-return-to-school
In the coming weeks, please continue to watch your email, check the website and our Facebook page for updated information regarding our safety plan, student schedules, and first day expectations.
Thank you for your patience and understanding through all the unknowns during this time and I look forward to providing more updates in the near future.
Regards,
Mark Marino
Principal – Eagle River Secondary