School closure update: All Clarington schools remain closed; all other PVNC schools set to re-open

Jan. 20, 2021,

The following letter was sent to all families in the Board following the government’s announcement that schools in a select group of Public Health Unit jurisdictions would resume in-person learning beginning Monday, Jan. 25, 2021.

Dear Parents and Guardians,

The purpose of this letter is to provide you with an important update with regards to the status of school closures.

Due to the varying case counts of COVID-19 in different regions, the provincial government announced today that schools in some Public Health Unit (PHU) jurisdictions would be returning to in-person learning on Monday and schools in other PHU jurisdictions would remain closed until further notice. 

Please read the following carefully. In the Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington (PVNC) Catholic District School Board:

• All elementary and secondary schools in Peterborough, Peterborough County, Northumberland and Kawartha Lakes will return to in-person learning on Monday (Jan. 25, 2021). These are the schools located in the jurisdictions of Peterborough Public Health and the Haliburton Kawartha Pine Ridge District Health Unit.
  
• All Clarington schools (Newcastle, Bowmanville and Courtice), will remain closed to in-person learning. These are the schools located in the jurisdiction of the Durham Region Health Department. Elementary and secondary students in Clarington schools will continue online learning until further notice. 

COVID-19 Protocols 

As has been the practice since the beginning of the school year, we continue to ask all students and staff returning to in-person learning to self-monitor for signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and complete the daily self-assessment for symptoms which is available at https://covid-19.ontario.ca/school-screening/ 

We continue to follow all public health and provincial recommendations, including thorough cleaning and disinfecting of all areas; frequent and proper handwashing by everyone in the building; wearing masks; maintaining physical distancing to the fullest extent possible, and following any other steps directed by the health unit.

NEW – Additionally, the province has mandated that all students from Grade 1 to Grade 12 must wear non-medical masks while attending school. We continue to strongly encourage masking for students in kindergarten. New masking requirements will also be in place for outdoor activities where physical distancing of at least two-metres is not possible.

We would like to remind families that it is important that students refrain from congregating before school starts and that students return directly home after school.

Transportation 

Bus transportation will resume for schools that are returning to in-person learning on Monday.

I want to acknowledge how challenging this period of school closure has been for students and their families and recognize the tremendous efforts that our staff, students and parents/guardians have put into making online learning as successful as possible.

For our Clarington school families, we hope to be able to welcome students and staff back to in-person learning as soon as it is safe to do so. We will keep you updated on any provincial decisions about your return date.

For all other school families, we will continue to be diligent as staff and students return to in-person learning and we will continue to comply with the health protocols that have kept our schools safe since the beginning of September.

Sincerely, 

Joan Carragher
Director of Education