Regina Public Schools moving high schools to online learning for three days

Students at Regina’s public high schools are to move to online instruction for three days starting Thursday.

The move comes one day after Greg Enion, the director of education for Regina Public Schools, told families to prepare for rapid changes to learning due to escalating COVID-19 cases.

In a letter to students at Campbell Collegiate on Tuesday, principal Nancy Buisson said classes at all Regina public high schools would shift to remote learning from Thursday through Monday. Similar letters went to students at every public high school as well.

Wrote Buisson: “We are making this move to temporary remote learning for several reasons:

• To maximize the potential to have our teachers available for final assessments with our students without disruption due to illness or self-isolation.
• To minimize the chance that students will be exposed to COVID and have their final assessments interrupted.”

Final exams are to begin in class on Tuesday. The letter said final assessments are to follow, either in schools or remotely “as determined by the requirement of the class and the teacher’s discretion.”

In the letter sent to parents Monday, Enion said there were 526 self-reported cases of COVID in the division’s schools last week alone — and 53 of those were among staff in schools.

“To date, school operations have been strained as teaching, administrative and facilities staff have had to cover for absent colleagues,” Enion wrote. “At the same time the availability of substitute staff, for both teaching and support, have also been in very short supply.”

Buisson addressed that issue in her letter to Campbell families.

“This temporary shift (to online learning) allows the school division to redeploy substitute staff to other schools that may experience staffing shortages and will further minimize disruption for all students,” she wrote.

All of Regina’s public high schools — Balfour, Campbell, Johnson, Martin, Scott, Sheldon-Williams, Thom and Winston Knoll — have reported cases in the past two weeks.