The Renfrew County Catholic District School Board continues to adjust the details of our Return to School Plan in accord with the Ministry of Education and Renfrew County District Health Unit (RCDHU) directives.
Return-to-School Survey Deadline Extended
The Renfrew County District Catholic School Board (RCCDSB) has extended the deadline to respond to our back-to-school survey to Monday, August 17 at 4:00 p.m.
Your decision regarding the method of education for your child(ren) in September is critical for the Board in order to properly staff both the Renfrew County Catholic Virtual School and our traditional in-person schools. As well, we need a clear sense of transportation needs for the start of the year.
The survey is available on the RCCDSB website.
Pre-Registration and Key Dates
We have received questions about “pre-registration”. If you are already registered at a school, we ask only that you fill out the parent survey – you are otherwise already registered. New-to-board or new-to-school registrants must register by August 20th so schools can establish classes and cohorts. After this date, we will be establishing wait lists for late registrants for remote learning and/or face-to-face if new to the school.
If you opt for remote learning, there will be key dates at which time a student can return to face-to-face learning. The first date for elementary students will be Monday, November 16, 2020, and for secondary students it will be Tuesday, February 2, 2021.
Attention High School Students!
The Board is adopting a “quadmester” model for your timetable. This means that you will take two courses all day long from September 8 to November 12, and then switch to two new courses from November 16 to January 29. This will reduce the number of contacts you will have in classroom settings. Watch for further information shortly.
Safety Precautions
In collaboration with the RCDHU, the Board continues to work through a number of safety precautions as outlined in our draft Return to School Plan, which you can find here. In general, there are some key principles underlying all of the measures. These include:
- Maintaining physical distancing (2 metres or more) where possible;
- Wearing a mask where physical distancing is not possible;
- Washing your hands frequently;
- Avoiding touching surfaces needlessly;
- Limiting the number of contacts you have (cohorting);
- Staying home when ill.
Please watch for more communication next week on a number of other items that we are working through and awaiting provincial guidance on. These include but are not limited to:
- Backpacks and lockers;
- Exemptions from mask wearing;
- Procedures and protocols for drop-off and pick-up;
- “Outbreak” protocols if a situation arises where there is a suspected case.
