75 New Classrooms Needed For School Reopening

Work continues in the Anglophone South School District for the new school year to ensure environments for students are safe.

Superintendent Zoe Watson said regular meetings are taking place with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development as they work through a plan to reopen schools.

Watson understands there are lots of questions and throughout August more information will go out to parents.

“The district will have a fairly lengthy letter to go to families by the end of the week that should help confirm some of the information we know as of this week,” Watson said.

Watson said between kindergarten and grade five, they will need to create 75 new classrooms, which all need a teacher.

“Some of our lead coach teachers will be returning to the classroom. We also have several teachers who are on what we call a ‘D contracts.’ They’ve worked last year on a one-year contract and by their collective agreement, they have recall rights to teaching positions for next year,” Watson said.

Space in some schools will be repurposed which will require the addition of furniture for teachers and students along with Smart Boards.

“We worked with each school to identify the spaces they would have. Some schools had a classroom that was not in use so that is always ideal,” Watson said.

Multi-purpose rooms in some schools will be used as classrooms this fall and, in some cases, part of the school library.