Dear families,
It has been a joy to welcome our students back to school. We have missed them, and whether they are joining their classrooms in person or remotely, we are so happy to see them and hope they have had a positive start to the school year.
We know these past 18 months have been hard. This pandemic has created new challenges for our children, families and schools, and it has affected us as individuals in different ways. As we start the new school year, we will be focusing on student mental health and well-being and supporting them in transitioning back to school. We want all of our students to know that they matter and belong, to feel valued and welcome in our classrooms, and to be successful.
Every day, you send your children into our care, and we do not take that trust lightly. The health and safety of our students, staff and families remains our top priority. We continue to work closely with public health to ensure we are taking all appropriate measures. We must all continue to be diligent to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. For more information, please visit www.yrdsb.ca/school-reopening or www.york.ca/safeatschool.
We also encourage you to read this letter to families from York Region Public Health (PDF) .
We want to say a special thank you to all of our staff members who have been working hard to prepare our schools to welcome and transition students back into the classroom. We also want to thank our families for your ongoing patience, support and partnership as we continue to navigate this pandemic together. This year, we thank you for showing patience as we implement a new hybrid learning model. We will build on the lessons learned from last year to create hybrid classrooms where students participating in person and remotely will learn together with peers from their school.
We appreciate that families have a lot of questions - about what measures are in place, what to expect in the classroom and more. We will continue to share information with you as it becomes available. In addition to email communications, we continue to update our website at www.yrdsb.ca/school-reopening with important information. Our school reopening videos and podcasts available on the website can also help to provide you with additional information in a different format. You can also follow us on Twitter @YRDSB.
We hope that everyone had a good start to the school year, and wish you all the best for the year ahead.
Cynthia Cordova, Chair
Louise Sirisko, Director