REGINA -- Students of Regina’s public and Catholic schools boards are back in classrooms on Monday.
Students were sent home as of Dec. 14, in an effort by school boards to slow the spread of COVID-19.
At Regina Catholic schools, students will resume learning where the term left off. Catholic high schools will return to Level Three (hybrid) of the Safe Schools plan, and Catholic elementary schools will return to Level Two (face-to-face masks.)
“The kids are super excited to be able to come back and see their friends and see their teachers and their staff, so I think it’s a good thing,” Domenic Scuglia, the director of education for the Regina Catholic School Division, said.
Scuglia said although high school students continue to attend in-person class on alternating days due to the province’s recommendation, he’s hopeful they can return to daily face-to-face learning as soon as it’s safe.
Students at Regina Public Schools also returned to the schedules they had before in-class sessions stopped. Elementary students are back full time and high school students are back to their alternating day schedules.
“The school division is confident that the two week temporary online learning contributed to helping keep students and staff safe during and immediately after the holiday break,” Terry Lazarou, the supervisor of communications with Regina Public Schools, said in an email to CTV News.
Patrick Maze, the president of the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation, said teachers are happy to be back in the classroom again, as it allows them to connect better with students. He said the federation is hopeful that classrooms will now stay open until the end of the year, if it is safe to do so.
“We’re cautiously optimistic that hopefully we’ll be able to get vaccinations into the province and hopefully most of this will be behind us,” Maze said. “At the same point, you have to be pragmatic and understand that safety is still our main priority.”
