School Plan. Enhanced Safety Measures

Dear Chief Dan George Middle School families,

Last week, our Superintendent shared all students will return to school on January 10, 2022, after an extended winter break, allowing schools to adapt to the impacts of the Omicron variant that is affecting our province.

Over the last few days, our school has been busy preparing continuity of learning plans and enhanced safety measures in advance of students returning to school on Monday. It is with this letter that we wanted to remind families of our ongoing measures and share the enhanced protocols we are implementing to keep students and staff safe.

Health & Safety Measures

Guidelines and existing protocols that have succeeded in minimizing the spread of the virus in schools include:

• Doing daily health checks and staying home when sick.
• Encouraging everyone who is eligible to get fully vaccinated.
• Using available space to spread out and to respect the personal space of others.
• Wearing masks in accordance with the Provincial Health Officer Order on Face Coverings. Three-layer masks are now being recommended. Please ensure that students are aware of the do’s and don’ts of mask wearing.  
• Cleaning hands regularly.
• Cleaning and disinfecting all surfaces at least once a day.

Our school’s new enhanced health and safety measures will also include:

• Implement strategies that prevent crowding during class transition and break times while continuing to use assigned entry and exit doors for all students.
  • All entries, exits and locker visits will be teacher guided to ensure spacing between classes, and avoidance of locker congestion.
  • Students will have reduced numbers of locker visits throughout the day
  • Changerooms will be closed for PE classes.
• Maximize space between people through different space configurations.
  • All classes have adjusted their seating arrangements as much as possible to create space and avoid face-to-face configurations.
  • Occupancy limits have been created for common spaces such as washrooms.
• Continue to conduct gatherings and events virtually. If gatherings and events must be in person, minimize attendance as much as possible, do not exceed 50% operating capacity, and do not allow spectators.
• Pause extracurricular sports tournaments. 
  • Practices and games will continue, however at this time spectators will not be allowed
  • Any overlapping practices or games will have strategies in place to avoid intermingling.
• Limit visitors to those supporting activities that directly benefit student learning and wellbeing.
  • The front door will now be locked and visitors to the building will need to use the buzzer or office window to alert office staff to let them in.
  • Parent Meetings will be held virtually whenever possible for the time being.

We will start off next week with a virtual assembly, introducing the specifics of our enhanced measures and giving reminders of previous expectations.

Next Steps

The health and safety of students, staff and our entire CDG school community remains a priority and it is imperative that we all make every effort to keep each other safe. As we continue to support one another to remain healthy this winter, we remind you to conduct a daily health of your child for symptoms of communicable diseases such as congestion and/or a sore throat.  A specific site that can be helpful to use with a detailed list of symptoms to be aware of is the BC K – 12 Health Check website . As we did at the beginning of the year, please only send your child to school each day when they are free of symptoms.  If your child is displaying any symptoms, please keep them home.

On a non-COVID related note, we also want to give you a heads up that the road to the school, as well as the entry lane and parking lot have large amounts of snow remaining.  An already tight area now has reduced space.  Please be aware of this, and be patient as we wait for this snow to melt.

Thank you again for all your support this year.  Between the flood, and ongoing and new COVID concerns, it has been a challenging year, and we appreciate everything that you do working in partnership with us!

Please don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions or concerns.

Thank you for your ongoing understanding and cooperation.

Sincerely,

Mr. Beck

Mme. Trudeau

Chief Dan George Middle School Administrative Team