School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) co-superintendent Lorie Henderson laid out the reasons why Wapanohk Community School extended and expanded remote learning at the Jan. 26 school board meeting, while trustees urged people with questions to contact the district directly.
“Wapanohk Community School was moved to remote learning for all K to 8 students out of care and concern for the school community,” Henderson said, a few days before the provincial government declared a COVID-19 outbreak at the school. “What was considered was the many intergenerational households along with large families in multi-family dwellings with common areas and the number of families who were not sending students to school for a number of COVID reasons. The decision was made to give people the opportunity to stop, stay home, to lessen the chance of moving the virus. At the end of the day it is a decision that helps the whole community. All staff are in attendance at the school and are teaching remotely. Students who are high risk, children of critical workers or students with special needs are in attendance.”
Referring to a recent post in a Facebook group asking why only Wapanohk was staying in remote learning while other schools were still holding in-person classes, board chairperson Lindsay Anderson said public forums weren’t the place to seek answers.
“Id like to remind people that we have a protocol for questions and Thompson Talk is not the appropriate place for questions,” she said.
Trustee Guido Oliveira was even blunter during his trustee comments near the end of the meeting.
“There’s no need to comment on Facebook expecting a response from individual school board members,” he said. “We are a group of seven with one voice. We will not independently answer any of your questions. Furthermore, there are forums in which to properly ask these questions and get answers so please do not try to call us out. We will just ignore you.”
