Under a revised order from the Provincial Health Officer (PHO), the return to K-12 for public and independent school students is delayed until Monday January 10th. Teachers and staff will return the first week of January to implement enhanced safety measures to support in-class learning. During this time, schools will be open for students whose parents work in the health care system and for students with exceptional needs — expect further communication from the school district regarding this.  

Enhanced safety measures include:  

• Maximizing space between people

• Enforcing mask wearing 

• Preventing crowding during class transition times

• Holding virtual school gatherings and events; if they must be in-person, capacity is reduced to 50% operating capacity

• Holding virtual staff-only gatherings 

• Limiting visitors 

• Pausing extracurricular sports tournaments

Read the full news release here and learn more: gov.bc.ca/safeschools.