Welcome Again from the Director of Schooling

Expensive Mother and father/Guardians and Workers,

On behalf of our Board of Trustees, our senior workforce and the complete faculty system, I wish to welcome you again to high school for the 2022-2023 faculty 12 months.  I hope that you simply and your loved ones loved a well-deserved time of relaxation and leisure with household and associates over the course of the summer time.  I wish to spotlight for you a few of the expectations and alternatives out there, as we start a brand new faculty 12 months.

Our faculty communities have demonstrated unbelievable flexibility and resilience through the course of the COVID pandemic.  As we now enter a brand new period of residing with COVID, it’s time to shift our considering from apprehension and concern to hope and alternative in our faculties and communities. I’m happy that our faculties are able to return to a normalized faculty expertise, the place college students can interact absolutely in educational, athletic, creative, social justice, wellness and religion formation actions all through the varsity day.  It will embrace alternatives for experiential studying and out of doors training; and in our secondary faculties, a return to totally operational cafeterias.  

On the recommendation of the Chief Medical Officer of Well being, for the 2022-2023 faculty 12 months, most well being and security necessities stay unchanged from the route beforehand offered to high school boards on the finish of the 2021-2022 faculty 12 months.  That’s, college students should not required to stay in cohorts or put on masks at college or on faculty buses.  Our faculties will proceed to offer masks for any members of our employees, college students and guests who want to put on them and we’ll proceed to encourage welcoming and inclusive environments for any people who want to put on a masks.  Workers and college students will even proceed to have entry to Fast Antigen Exams (RATs), in accordance with provincial testing steering.  Workers or college students wishing to entry RATs following an unplanned absence might request take a look at kits from the varsity workplace.

In fact, within the occasion that there’s any change in public well being steering, St. Clair Catholic will proceed to observe the recommendation and route of the Chief Medical Officer of Well being, the Ministry of Schooling and Chatham-Kent and Lambton Public Well being.

All college students will proceed to have entry to school-based psychological well being providers offered by our distinctive help employees.  For extra info, go to the Psychological Well being and Wellbeing web page of the Board web site right here.  As well as, College Psychological Well being Ontario has glorious assets for educators, college students and oldsters, which can be found right here. A brand new student-focused web site, which centres on scholar views and offers easy accessibility to psychological well being studying, instruments and helps can also be out there right here.  Mother and father who’ve considerations concerning the wellness of their baby ought to converse to the classroom trainer and/or faculty principal.

Whereas day by day COVID screening is not a compulsory requirement; neither is it documented, it is strongly recommended that employees, college students and guests proceed to self-screen every day earlier than attending faculty utilizing the COVID-19 faculty and baby care screening device. Anybody who’s feeling unwell ought to keep dwelling to stop the unfold of sickness.

Applicable hand hygiene and respiratory etiquette shall be promoted and built-in all through the varsity day. Hand sanitizer will proceed to be out there in each faculty.

Our Facility Companies employees have labored all through the summer time to scrub and set up our faculties.  We are going to proceed with enhanced cleansing protocols, which require the cleansing/disinfecting of high-touch surfaces at the very least as soon as day by day.  Over the previous three years, St. Clair Catholic has invested $7.7 million at school air flow upgrades.  Our faculties are outfitted with glorious air flow techniques (MERV 13 highest-grade filters and extra HEPA filters that meet or exceed ministry necessities) in each classroom, moveable and faculty.  For extra info concerning air flow in our faculties, please go to the Board web site at: https://www.st-clair.internet/broader-public-sector-accountability.aspx 

Our faculties will proceed to observe absence charges and collaborate intently with our native public well being items to help scholar well-being and well being and security in faculties. Public well being items shall be notified each time absence charges on account of sickness in faculties exceed what is taken into account typical. 

For the 2022-2023 faculty 12 months, the Ministry of Schooling is working with the Workplace of the Fireplace Marshal on a return to pre-pandemic complete evacuation fireplace drill procedures in faculties. These procedures are particular to particular person faculties and are documented in fireplace security plans which might be authorised by Chiefs of native fireplace and emergency providers. Info from the Workplace of the Fireplace Marshal about fireplace drill procedures in faculties shall be shared at a later date.

The St Clair Catholic District College Board stays dedicated to attaining success within the 4 priorities outlined in our Strategic Plan:  Studying and Innovation, Religion and Properly-being, Partnerships and Catholic Citizenship.  We try each day to realize our mission:  Studying collectively right this moment, remodeling tomorrow and we sit up for working in partnership with you to make sure your baby(ren) turn into the perfect that God has created them to be.

I hope that you’re having fun with these previous couple of days of the summer time break, as we sit up for the brand new faculty 12 months with pleasure, renewed power and optimism!  See you on September sixth! 

Sincerely,
Scott Johnson
Director of Schooling