Remote learning will continue to the end of the school year for Richmond students from kindergarten to Grade 9.
Currently about 2,500 students – the majority in elementary schools – are in the school district’s transitional learning program.
Trustees voted unanimously to continue the program, which allows these students to stay learning from home but at the same time be connected to their home schools.
Several trustees reiterated that schools are safe and were concerned about students being out of school for 18 months – from the beginning of the pandemic a year ago to next fall.
Trustee Donna Sargent called the district’s schools “one of the safest places in our community.”
Trustee Ken Hamaguchi said if everyone was vaccinated, he might vote differently on the recommendation to continue remote learning, but as it is, he supported continuing the program.
Anneke Wijtkamp, a parent in the Richmond School District, however, questioned the safety aspect in schools.
Nevertheless, she said she’s happy transitional learning will continue to the end of the school year.
“Unfortunately, it’s a constant battle – I have to be happy with small victories,” she said.
She would like to see more focus on safety, namely, a mask mandate, smaller classes and better ventilation.
She would also like to see a hybrid situation for the fall when students are expected to be back full-time in school.
Wijtkamp is especially concerned with the new COVID-19 variants found in B.C. including in schools in the Fraser Health region.
Wijtkamp challenged the “narrative” that schools are safe and that there aren’t any transmissions of COVID-19; she said she thinks it’s because students aren't being tested.
Wijtkamp’s son is in the transitional program for medical reasons, and she said parents in her situation have a heightened awareness of the issues around COVID-19 “because we have real health concerns.”
She would have liked to have heard more at Wednesday’s meeting about how health and safety measures can be increased in schools.
Liz Baverstock, president of the Richmond Teachers Association, in addressing the board of education Wednesday, said she would like to see the school district be flexible in bringing students back, whether it’s full-time or part-time.
She said teachers’ workload during this past year has been “challenging,” and the resources and planning haven’t been in place to support teachers who have been teaching in-person and remotely.
“The money was never sufficient to create two different systems that we implemented on a moment’s notice,” Baverstock said.
The cost of continuing the transitional learning program till the end of the school year is $900,000.
