By Adam Ophus

First month of school

At-home learning and fewer enrolments leads to smaller classes at Wild Rose School Division

Sep 15, 2020 | 1:45 PM

It’s been over two weeks since schools have re-opened to in-class learning at Wild Rose School Division, but not all parents have taken that route.

The division announced in August that if anyone felt sending their kids to school could be a health risk to their children or their family, they could continue to do At-home Learning, not to be confused with Home-Schooling, which Wild Rose has cancelled and now instead directs parents to organizations that focus on it.

At-home learning is similar to what students and parents saw during the end of the last school year, but now with a more robust assignment and work schedule.

Schools initially had a set date by which parents were able to put their kids into or out of At-Home learning, but have since eased up wanting to be more flexible.

“It may take a week or so, but we don’t want to make parents feel they’re stuck with their decision,” Superintendent Brad Volkman explained.

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Currently around 350 students in the Wild Rose School Division have chosen to learn from home.

Wild Rose has hired 6.5 additional teachers to focus on the online teaching portion with those teachers working out of offices in Rocky Mountain House and Drayton Valley.

With the 350 At-Home learning students and an overall enrolment drop of about 325 students, Volkman noted that classes have been smaller than usual to start the school year, which has made social distancing easier.

Volkman mentioned that the board had anticipated only around 120 fewer students being enrolled this year, and had said that it could be an issue in later years as the division is paid on a per student basis.

He also made mention that discussion has commenced on how the division will spend $1,666,350 it received in federal funding to support a safe return to school.

Noting much of it will go to additional substitute teachers as now staff can’t “tough it out” with a cold, the addition of much more PPE, and the additional custodial hours that is now required due to COVID-19.