Extra-curricular still on hold

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Sunny South News

By Nikki Jamieson
Sunny South News

Schools belonging to the Holy Spirit Catholic School Division will not be offering extracurricular for the time being.

“We remain committed to following the established health measures and guidelines that were implemented to ensure that the first number of school weeks are filled with opportunities for students to feel welcome and safe while they settle into new school routines ” said Ken Sampson, superintendent of schools for Holy Spirit. “Although we certainly know that sports, fine arts, and other extracurricular activities are an important part of making school a great experience, our number one priority is that we are to provide students with excellent learning, and an environment that ensures student and staff safety.”

The Board of Trustees will be monitoring and reviewing reentry plans and will revisit the issue over the coming weeks and months, as the situation continues to evolve. Sampson says they will be working with neighbouring school divisions to make the best informed decision.

The decision was made based on guidelines the division had received in June and revised in August.

“Knowing we were going back into a near-normal circumstance, yet still in pandemic mode, we put those in place well before the school year began, with the commitment we would continue to look at these parameters and things as they changed,” said Sampson. “We felt that it was in our best interest right now to continue to focus in on making sure that students felt safe, and we had an established routine in place for the first number of weeks of school.”

“We know that there’s lots of areas, lots of individuals in the area that feel that we need to move in a different direction, but for the time being, this is our stance.”

Sampson noted that things such as fine arts, athletics and other extracurricular programs were important to experience, their focus is on student safety.