The Education Department to announced that because of the recent COVID-19 outbreak, most
public school students will begin their holiday break after classes end on Friday.
All staff will report back to work as usual next week, unless they are required to isolate for public health reasons. The start of the official school holiday break remains as Wednesday, December 22nd.
Learning Centres will remain open on December 20th and 21st for students whose needs are met through learning centres and require additional support.
A small number of schools have had to move to at-home learning and more may need to do so before Friday. Education Minister Becky Druhan said the Department will continue to monitor the pandemic over the holidays and consult public health before schools reopen. Druhan says the decision to begin the school holiday break early is an operational decision based on staffing pressures and not a public health decision.