Dear KPR Parents and Guardians,
I am writing today to update everyone on some important changes in our school operations on inclement weather (snow) days.
At last evening’s meeting of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, we reviewed with Trustees that, in the interests of complying with public health guidelines and maintaining student health, schools will be closed on inclement weather (snow) days this year.
We know school closures are an inconvenience and hardship for parents and families. Ultimately, we must operate our schools safely at all times, including being able to appropriately supervise everyone in our care.
Our traditional practice on snow days has been to bring smaller student groups together for the day. These student groups are then supervised on an emergency basis by the reduced number of staff that are able to make it to school on those days.
This year, to keep students safe and in accordance with current provincial directives, we are not able to combine groups or “cohorts” of students.
As a result, we cannot ensure that our schools would have enough staff on-site during snow days to safely supervise students within their existing class groups.
For this year, we will be closing schools on a board-wide or regional basis on snow days. More specifically:
when ALL buses are cancelled across the entire board, ALL schools will be closed for the day
when ALL buses are cancelled within a specific geographic region of the board, such as the Municipality of Clarington, Northumberland County or Peterborough County, schools will be closed for the day in that region only
and, finally, if ALL buses are cancelled for a specific school or group of schools, only that school or group of schools will be closed for the day.
When only a few buses are cancelled, or buses are delayed, schools will remain open.
Schools will provide learning for students to work at home on these days in a variety of ways, either through previously assigned or new work through the classroom teachers’ regular communication platforms, based on the age and grade of the students. Virtual elementary and secondary school programming on snow days will continue as normal.
Parents will be able to find the latest information on school closures on snow days in the following ways:
local media
our board website: www.kprschools.ca
our board social media channels (@kprschools on Twitter and Facebook)
School Messenger direct text messages and emails.
Please ensure that your school has up-to-date contact information for you, so that we can text or email you to inform you of what is happening at your child’s or teen’s school. Parents can sign up for our direct text service by sending a text message to 978338 with the message of “Y” or “Yes”.
In closing, we again acknowledge that school closures are difficult for our families. We appreciate everyone’s continued patience as we work through these very challenging days in public education.
Sincerely,
Dr. Jennifer Leclerc
Director of Education
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