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MEI Stage 3: Partial Re-Opening (with Critical Survey)

Friday, May 22, 2020

UPDATE

Results from the May 15th survey to families indicated that 31.6% of the 795 respondents have firm plans to send their child(ren) back to school for the optional Partial Re-Opening between June 1 - 19, 2020. An additional 20% indicated that they were undecided.

Schools are now following up with parents to introduce draft plans and to collect names of the specific students who will attend so that we can create schedules and compile our attendance registries.

Families can expect an email communication from the Head of Schools by Wednesday, May 27th with information regarding our finalized plans.


Friday, May 15, 2020

Dear MEI Families,

The Premier of B.C., Minister of Education, and Provincial Health Officer held a joint press conference today to announce the rollout of Stage 3: Partial Re-Opening and how it is expected to impact schools.

Please review the key points and then complete the short survey below by midnight on Monday, May 18th. This will help to guide our planning next week.

I would like to thank our staff for creating an online program on such short notice that has continued to provide learning opportunities to our students. With the possibility of a move to partial in-class instruction for some, we will do our best to continue the momentum we have created to this point.

Thank you.

Vijay



KEY POINTS
Partial Re-Opening to begin on June 1st

June classes are voluntary; parents decide for their children
It is absolutely fine for parents to wait until September
~ Bonnie Henry

Limited #s of students permitted into the building at one time

Safety Measures expected to be in place
No physical contact
Maintain physical distancing
Deep cleaning of facility every evening

2.5 days / week for K - 5 students

1 day / week for 6 - 12 students

Staff and students are to self-assess daily
Sniffles, cough, allergies, sickness, anything? Stay home

Bussing
1 child per seat
Plexiglass barriers for drivers (We’re ordering these)

It may not be reasonable to expect that MEI Teachers provide online and in-class instruction on the same days

All MEI classes will end on Friday, June 19th

The final day for teachers will be Friday, June 26th as previously scheduled



CRITICAL PARENT SURVEY
(1 per family, complete by end of Monday, May 18th)

Click here


Note: Individual schools will be following up once we have reviewed the results of this survey




Comments

  1. All sounds good. Teachers should not have to teach on both platforms every day for sure. My boys deal with EA's so would like to keep that support for the "online" days

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  2. I don’t think there is any point in going back for 3 weeks, or 7 days. The teachers have established a good routine with online classes with the elementary kids and it will be impossible to keep kids apart and follow proper social distancing. I understand why these requirements are in place but I think we should just finish off the year the way we are doing it. The teachers have done an amazing job and we shouldn’t make them change everything again for 3 weeks.

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    1. Well said. I wholly agree with this comment.

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  3. We would much prefer to stay home and see what September holds.

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  4. We have been so impressed with the teachers' and staff's ability to make on-line learning work during these challenging times. The instruction has been great; the feedback and assessment has been communicated clearly. Thank you!

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  5. We would rather wait until September:)

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  6. As much as kids want to see their friends/teachers, what has been implemented is going well. Why go back for 1-3 days a week in a non-proper environment. Even with a grad student myself, I don't see the point. The teachers have worked really hard to make this online schooling work, and it is. To add in now a day here or there will just be more work for the teachers, confusion for kids, and frustration with all the extra "safety measures and rules". I say we just finish off the way it is and start fresh in September. If there were still several months to go in the school year that would be different, but is all this hassle and change really worth the few short weeks in June before summer starts?

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  7. My only thought is that it would be nice to have a little closure on the year for the kids. To celebrate their job well done in a hard year. It would be nice to do a bit of a 'field day' of sorts... maybe one grade per morning, play some games and see some friends with staying outside as much as possible. Finish up June with virtual school but one morning per grade to celebrate and wrap up the year.

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  8. Our family also agrees with this statement ( 1 child in HS)

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  9. Kids are safe at home and doing well on online study

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  10. Our child is in HS and we feel that online teaching has been working fine. We are happy and satisfied with all the hard work that teachers have been putting in. We don't think it would be worth the risk to have school for only three four days of the remaining academic year. Having come all this way safely, we should continue social distancing and virtual learning. We are willing to wait till September 2020.

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  11. While there are challenges that come with home-learning, we are now getting in the groove. I don't think it would be worth 3 days of school to go back.

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  12. While home learning has it challenges and its rewards, it would be easier to continue on for us with the online method as there would be only 3 days of bricks and mortar school left for our high school student anyway.

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  13. I think the kids who want to go back to school will be very disappointed to see it's not the 'normal' they left behind. It's not going to scratch that itch. Everything has changed....at least for now. Seems like it is putting a lot of people at a higher risk exposure for very little (if any) truly "educational" value.

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  14. We would love to finish the year of with online schooling. We left Canada on march-11 to visit Family in South Amrica and the country we are in soon closed their boarders after we arrived. Being here for more then double the time we booked for we still dont know when we will be able to return to Canada. Keep going with online school gives our children the ability to finish the school year as well even though we are thousands of miles away. Thank you to all MEI staff for the hard work!

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