Welcome Back Parent Letter

September 4, 2020

Dear BCSS families,

We are excited about welcoming back students – in person and through remote learning – to the 2020-21 school year. The pandemic has brought many changes to our school and its families, but I know that we can rise to the occasion if we work together.

Thank you for keeping up with the communications coming from HWDSB, and for completing important forms and surveys as required.

We are taking many actions to prevent COVID-19 at our school. You will notice that safety is guiding our programming choices.

Here are some of the important points to remember:

Attestation Before a student can enter a school, we require that their family (or the student if over age 18) completes an attestation that they have read, understood, and will abide by expectations. Find this on the Parent Portal. (Backup location for forms and translations.)

Daily COVID-19 Screening HWDSB COVID-19 Student Screening Checklist is to be completed daily before arriving at school. The checklist is found on the Parent Portal as well as on the HWDSB website. If you answered YES to any of the screening questions, or if you refuse to answer the questions, the student has failed the screening and must not attend school. The family should contact Public Health (905) 974-9848 or their family doctor for testing. Please contact the school using SafeArrival to report the absence. If the student is tested for COVID-19, your school would appreciate knowing the outcome of that test.

Staggered start details

As you know, we will be opening our school with a staggered start timeline. This means that not all students will begin on the same day. Please see the chart below, see the Parent Portal to learn which cohort your child is in and reach out if you have more questions:

New routines and protocols

School operations are changing significantly to ensure that we can provide a safe learning environment for students. We are finishing school-specific protocols and expect to post these to our website in the days ahead. These will cover everything from use of parking lots, class set up, nutrition breaks and more. On the first day of school your student will be expected to enter through a specified door, use a specified stairwell, and go directly to their period one class. Students will remain in this classroom for 150 minutes. Each room will have an assigned washroom for student use. We are dividing our school into colour-coded zones to assist students in knowing where they can go in the school. Students will not be allowed to linger in hallways.

After their period one class (150 minutes) there will be an 80 minute lunch/dismissal travel time and three 50 minute distance learning classes.

There will be no cafeteria service provided at school. Students who choose to stay in the building for lunch will be expected to bring their own food. They will be assigned a space in the school to eat lunch. Students who leave for lunch can go home or can return to school at the end of the 80 minutes. In the afternoon, students are expected to log onto their distance learning classes during the time assigned as teachers will be online to support them with their learning. Students can do this learning at home or at school.

If students choose to do their distance learning courses at school this must be indicated in the Parent Portal. Students will be assigned a study hall in the school. They will be expected to stay in this study hall for the 150 minutes in the afternoon.

Masks

Students who attend BCSS will be expected to wear a mask. Students are to wear their own masks (no bandanas or gators). If they do not have a mask one will be given to them on the first day of school.

Parent Portal

Please log in to your Parent Portal to complete your attestation and to indicate whether your student will be participating in the morning face to face learning (or doing learning remotely) and whether they intend to use the school as their afternoon distance learning space.

You will find your student timetable here as well as the Cohort/Track that indicates the days to attend school. The cohort list will be finalized on Wednesday, September 9th. Please ensure you check the list at this time.

Visiting Schools

This year, our school must significantly limit or even prohibit visitors to school, including parents, to support a safe and healthy learning environment. We ask families to call or email our school if they need to provide information or contact a staff member. Also, it is strongly recommended that parents do not drop off items during the school day.

I will continue to send updates as we receive added information. Thank you for understanding the challenges of planning the new school year, and for sharing our commitment to safe and successful school year. Learn more about COVID-19 precautions at HWDSB at www.hwdsb.on.ca/covid19.

If you have any questions, or think your child might struggle with school, please let me know.

Sincerely,

Angela Ferguson,

Principal, Bernie Custis Secondary School