Superintendent’s Message & Feedback Survey
June 25th, 2020
Dear Sunshine Coast families,
It has been a remarkable school year. Everyone’s lives have changed since the Coronovirus pandemic arrived in Canada and even much more so when schools were closed to in-class learning after the Spring Break. Since the beginning of April families needed to adapt to a life without the predictability of regular schooling for their children. For many of our families this has been a time of significant emotional and financial hardship. We have all had to deal with the reality of regularly changing information. We have all wanted to know more than we actually could know at any given time. The impact on family life has been huge as roles have shifted and everyone has adapted and done the best they could in a time in our lives that is completely unprecedented and for which we were largely unprepared.
Our staff have been amazing. They have made a hairpin turn very quickly to a completely new form of instruction and communication. Teachers, principals and education assistants have created opportunities for their students that they never knew were even possible! Our custodians, administrative assistants, maintenance team, and school board office staff have all pulled together to make this all work as best we could.
What will the beginning of school in September look like?
We know that we will be in one of the Five Stages for returning to school. We will find out which stage from the Ministry of Education likely sometime in August. As soon as we know, we will share that information with you promptly as this is so important for families as they organize their lives around school.
During the month of June, we have shown that we can operate our schools safely and effectively because we have all of the special health and safety protocols in place. We do know that we will need to support our students emotionally and in terms of their mental health after such a jarring end of the school year. Our school counselors are working on this priority issue for us. We don’t expect everything to be back to “normal” in September, but each of our schools will be ready to welcome your children back to learning, their friends and our staff! Again, we will provide more information as soon as we have it.
Bus transportation: If you are interested in bussing for your child, please register on our website before the deadline of July 15th. If you register for bus transportation, we will provide confirmation of ridership status by August 30th, 2020. Students can find their bus stops and times posted on the windows of their school offices and on the district website one week prior to the start of the school year which will be Tuesday, September 8th for most students.
To find out more about your experience over the last few months we would appreciate your taking a few minutes to respond to a survey. It will be on our website until July 7th – we want to hear what you have to say so that we can provide as much support as possible. If you have specific concerns regarding your child’s education, it would be best to connect directly with their teacher or principal.
Please be sure to check in on our school and district websites for updates. If you have any questions or comments please let us know at, questions@sd46.bc.ca.
Thank you all for your patience and support as we have navigated some pretty challenging waters over these last months. It’s been tough, but we are pulling together as a community to get through it.
As Dr. Bonnie Henry says, “Be kind, be calm and be safe”.
I hope you all have a wonderful summer.
Patrick
Patrick Bocking
Superintendent of Schools
School District 46 – Sunshine Coast