THUNDER BAY – Graduating students may get one last, quick look at the inside of their soon-to-be high school alma maters before the school year is out.
But there's no guarantee.
Students in all grades are being given an opportunity to collect their belongings, though it's likely only those in larger schools will actually be allowed inside. Others will have to settle for a drive-through pick-up process.
Administrators at both the Lakehead District School Board and the Thunder Bay Catholic District School Board are busy putting together schedules and informing students and parents when they'll be allowed to retrieve their belongings.
A.J. Keene, superintendent of education at Lakehead Public Schools, said they’ve been fielding calls for more than a month from students anxious to get their belongings, which have been off limits to them since schools closed in mid-March across Ontario.
About four weeks ago the Thunder Bay District Health Unit put together a team to plan for how to make it happen.
“We’ve been waiting for the ministry’s permission to go ahead and allow parents into schools. They gave us that last week,” Keene said, noting the health unit’s plan has been vetted for about three weeks.
Keene said there are two options for schools.
The preferred strategy is to not allows students and parents into the schools, but have staff bag up belongings and have them picked up in a drive-through process.
“In schools where that’s not possible or too big, then Option B is they have a protocol to allows parents and students in to actually access the lockers and retrieve their belongings,” Keene said.
Staff have already begun the process of identifying belongings in lockers and classrooms, many in creative ways.
“Some teachers have sent surveys to students saying, ‘Give me your locker number, your combination and what you think is inside of it.’ And then they’ve gone in, bagged all the stuff, labelled it and it’s been placed in an area of the school that’s close to a kiss-and-go or a pick-up area.”
Schedules have been provided to families, either alphabetically by their last name or by grade.
“Families will pull up, give their name and a staff member will bring their materials out and put them in their vehicle or put them on a table, back away and then the family member can get out of the vehicle and get them.”
Families only have to come through once, regardless of how many students they might have attending a particular school.
Karen Mckissick, a safety officer at the Catholic Board, said they’re in the process of finalizing procedures to allow for pick-up.
“Different schools have different needs because there are lockers and in elementary schools there are classrooms,” McKissick said.
The board is also awaiting further ministry correspondence, which they expect to receive on Thursday, on how to proceed.
