Elementary students at the Kamloops School of the Arts await to get their pictures taken on their second day back on Friday (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Chad Klassen

BACK TO SCHOOL

Kamloops-Thompson superintendent says 95 per cent of students have returned to school

Sep 11, 2020 | 12:06 PM

KAMLOOPS — It’s the second full day of school for students across the Kamloops-Thompson School District and the district’s superintendent says the majority of students are coming back to school, despite some fears around COVID-19.

Terry Sullivan says 95 per cent of students projected to return have come back to school. The provincial average, he says, is about 80 per cent. Sullivan notes the district’s task now is to reach out to families who haven’t returned.

“The specific reasons why parents decided not to do that… we know generally why, but there would also be students that I expect have special needs. There would be children who may have somebody, a grandparent maybe in their family who’s immune-compromised, maybe even a parent,” said Sullivan. “So we really have to get that information now and we have to find out how best to support those families.”

The other challenge for the district is getting accurate student projections related to provincial funding and staffing levels. Sullivan is planning as if all students will eventually return to school.

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“I suspect we’ll have some students that will come back as we work through the month of September,” he noted. “Some will come back in October. Some will come back in November. Some will wait until we have a vaccine or we isolate the antibodies around this disease. But the message I’ve sent out is, all these students are going to be coming back. It’s just a matter of when, and so we have to keep our staff in place as they gradually come back to school over the next two-to-three months.”

Sullivan expects exact student enrollment numbers by the end of Friday (Sept. 11).