Back to School Letter

January 7, 2022

Re: Welcoming our students back to school in 2022

Dear Parents/Guardians of Vermilion Elementary School,

We missed our students and are looking forward to safely welcoming them back to school. Staff have been busy preparing for students next week! 

COVID UPDATES REFLECTED IN SCHOOL PRACTICES:

We have taken the time to enhance our COVID-19 protocols for the safety of students and staff. Mask use for Grades 4-6 students will be strictly enforced in all common areas, hallways, and when students are working in groups. We are strongly recommending that Kindergarten to Grade 3 students wear their masks in common areas and hallways as well. When students in K-6 are not able to social distance during the day, all students will be required to mask. Some examples of these times would be for group work or inside recesses, and these would be kept to a short length of time. School administration may implement masking in other settings as a proactive measure to keep students and staff healthy. If there is a positive COVID-19 case within a school, masks will be mandatory for all staff and students for 14 days. As a school we are able to provide masks for emergency purposes, but are kindly reminding families to send masks daily with their children for all students in K-6. 

Our school has hand sanitizer at all entrances and in the classroom. We will be asking students to ensure proper hand hygiene when entering and leaving the classroom and school. All staff and students must fill out the Alberta Health daily checklist and stay home when they are sick. Anyone with core symptoms or COVID must isolate and household contacts must stay home to monitor symptoms. Please follow all government guidelines. If you are aware of a positive case in your household, please continue to contact school administration (ves@btps.ca ). This continues to be an important step to mitigate risk and return to a safe and healthy environment.

We will be sending home the optional rapid tests for your home use. If you do not want to have these at home, please let us know by emailing ves@btps.ca . Please see the following LINK on how to use the rapid tests at home. Initially, Alberta Education has indicated that the rapid test distribution will offer enough rapid test kits for each student and staff member to test twice per week for 2.5 weeks. This is optional for our BTPS staff and students. Here is a how-to video for parents. There is also a fact sheet available here. Alberta Education will also be sending medical-grade masks for all students.The medical masks should be shipped to our school the week of January 10th. We will distribute them to all families when they arrive.

Visitors in the school will be limited, but we will continue to keep you informed through facebook, our web page, newsletters, calls, and emails. As we are all aware, changes in the guidelines happen quickly and we are committed to keeping our parents, guardians, and students informed. We also want to continue to share with you the exciting activities that our students are doing in their classrooms. All parents/visitors to the school must wear a mask at all times, use proper hand hygiene upon entering, and complete the BTPS DAILY SCREENING APP.  All parent meetings will be held by phone or virtually at this time unless circumstances demand otherwise.

Although we are preparing for students to be in the school on Monday, January 10, 2022, we want to remind you that a shift to at-home learning could happen on very short notice. If our school is unable to get substitutes when staff are ill, or there is a high absentee rate there may be a shift of a class or even the entire school to at home learning. 

We also know that we will have students out with core symptoms or as household contacts. Our teachers will continue to provide learning materials to continue learning at home while students are isolating. As of now, there is no procedure or guidance that would allow students who are isolating to virtually tune into their classrooms daily, unless the whole class moves to online learning. If you, as a parent, choose to have your child learn at home rather than in the classroom at this time, please contact Administration. You can be advised how to contact Students On-Line to support your child’s learning.

Alberta Education has announced a free e-Tutoring Hub for students in grades 4 to 9 to address pandemic-caused learning disruptions, which will be launched with pre-recorded video tutoring sessions. We will share how to access this resource once it is available. 

Our Vermilion School Back to School Plan will reflect these changes.

SCHOOL UPDATES:

VES Spirit Day and Virtual Assembly - January 12th  Dress to Impress or Career Wear Day

Grade 4 and 5 students who were scheduled for swimming will be postponed.  We will monitor changes to decide on Grade 6 students swimming later in the month. 

If your child is going to be absent/late, even if buses are not running please let your child's teacher know or call the office to notify us. Please note, if you are emailing a teacher during the school day, they may not always get them in time to avoid a call from the automated system.

At this time, the Hot Lunch Program will continue as usual with refunds made to cover January 3-7. The committee is working hard to process this in a timely manner. The February menus are ready for you to order and are due January 20th.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we continue to do all that we can to provide a safe and caring environment for our students to learn. We look forward to being together again!

Sincerely,

Sheila Doherty, Acting Principal

Adrienne Joa, Acting Assistant Principal