Attendance dropped at all School District of Mystery Lake (SDML) schools in October compared to the previous month as cases of COVID-19 popped up in the community and parents responded by keeping their children home.
District superintendent of education and programming Lorie Henderson said at the Nov. 10 school board meeting that École Riverside School had the highest attendance in October, at 87 per cent, followed by Westwood School at 85 per cent, and Deerwood School and R.D. Parker Collegiate both at 83 per cent. Attendance at Juniper School was 81 per cent and at Burntwood it was 73 per cent, while overall attendance in October at Wapanohk Community School was only 50 per cent.
“Attendance is low across the district,” Henderson told the board. “We’re averaging 1,000 students missing school every day.”
Among elementary schools, Westwood and Deerwood were both above the general minimum acceptable standard of 90 per cent in September, while Burntwood and Juniper were both around 85 per cent. Wapanohk was only at 67.8 per cent attendance in September. Attendance at RDPC was just under 87 per cent.
There have been three reports of people who tested positive being present at schools in Thompson while they may have been infections.
The first instance of a potentially infectious person being at a school was reported Oct. 20 at RDPC. the person was there Oct. 15-16. A second case occurred the next day, when Deerwood parents and guardians were informed that someone who may have been infectious was at the school Oct. 14-16. Westwood parents and guardians were informed in a Nov. 10 letter that someone who tested positive was at the school while they may have been infectious Oct. 29.
The number of students previously enrolled at SDML schools whose parents have opted to homeschool them has increased, Henderson said at Tuesday’s board meting.
“As of Nov. 2 there were 41 students registered with the home school office,” she said. “At this time 21 of those students were students in the district. There may be more. The message for parents is that there is not cutoff date for families to register or to notify the office of their intention to home school if they withdraw their children from public school. For families that have chosen not to send their children to school at all and the children have not been attending, they are given 30 days to put together a program and submit notification forms to our office. If they do not notify or register with the homeschooling office, they remain the responsibility of the school division. Students that were on our nominal roll and have not surfaced with homeschooling, we will be reaching out to those families because as the province has told us those students still remain our responsibility.”
