SD57 held a virtual town hall meeting last night (Thursday) answering questions to ease confusion on next week’s back to school plan.

“We answered questions ranging from a whole variety of topics, like what are we doing to ensure the safety of children as they return to our buildings, distance learning and the transition program that was announced this week,” explains Tim Bennett, Chair of SD57’s Board of Education.

In addition to responding to back-to-school based questions, Bennett touched on the additional COVID-Specific funding from the federal government. 

“We found out that SD-57 will be receiving around $2 million, so now the staff will be able to look at how that will be utilized as far as health and safety, towards additional staffing and how that will help support a successful startup for our district.”

The meeting comes after a survey was released this Wednesday asking for parents’ responses on the multiple back-to-school options.

“As of last night (Thursday), we’ve received about 3,000 responses,” explained Bennett, “of the 3,000 responses we have a large percentage of students who have identified they’re either coming back to in-class instruction next week or are interested in taking the transition approach.”

Bennett is urging parents to visit the SD57 website to better understand what back to school 2020 will look like for students.