Busy Few Months Of Planning Ahead For Anglophone East School District

The pressure is on for school districts across the province as they begin to prepare for the upcoming school year during a pandemic.

Anglophone East Superintendent Gregg Ingersoll says reduced class sizes means more classroom space will be needed.

‘They may have to use non-traditional space, such as an art room or a music room, or a science lab. As far as a gymnasium goes, one of our schools that  already has space issues, the gymnasium is a part of that potential plan for that school.”

Ingersoll says the Kindergarten to grade five levels are going to need new teachers, because there will be 44 additional classes in the District.

“We need around 20 French immersion classroom teachers. That will put some pressure on finding those teachers, because the Francophone South School district is also looking for teachers. So that’s a challenge,” Ingersoll says.

He expects transitioning the students will also require some thought.

“Lunch time, recess, coming and going. How do we plan that in such a way that we respect physical distancing as much as we can between the classes. We don’t want everyone going out in the playground and mixing together. That’s something the schools are going to have to think about now.”

Ingersoll admits there’s lots of work to be done.

‘Definitely a lot of background work that needs to be done in order for schools to be ready to open in September. We will talk to our Principals and get as much of that done before they leave in the end of June. There will definitely be some work through out the summer at the school level and at the District level as well.”

Once the Schools and District have procedures in place, and more information, they’ll be letting the school know.  Ingersoll doesn’t expect that will be until near the end of the summer.