PORT HAWKESBURY - A school year unlike any other begins this week in the four counties that comprise Nova Scotia's Strait Regional Centre for Education (SRCE).

Students in the SRCE's English-language communities in Richmond, Inverness, Guysborough and Antigonish Counties will return to classes on Tuesday, September 7, as part of the plan rolled out by Education Minister Zach Churchill in mid-July to return students and teachers to the classroom and end a system-wide shutdown that began in mid-March as the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting social-distancing protocols swept through the province. 

The SRCE held an open house at one of its schools, Antigonish Education Centre (AEC) in the Town of Antigonish, on August 26 to show how schools in the region have reorganized their classroom settings to ensure that students and teachers will be properly socially-distanced to accommodate the directives from the Nova Scotia Department of Education and Early Childhood Development (EECD).

Speaking to TELILE 24/7 host-producer Adam Cooke prior to this open house in Antigonish, SRCE executive director Paul Landry stated that he feels the region's education officials, including SRCE executives, principals and teachers, were directly involved in the decision-making process that led to the minister's directives in July. 

Landry added that he and his colleagues have spoken to school bus drivers across the Strait Region's four counties, and he does not anticipate that bus routes will have to be altered to fit the new reality with regards to COVID-19. 

He added that he is confident that the SRCE's principals, teachers, janitorial staff, bus drivers and others will be able to deal with any subsequent outbreak of COVID-19 within the region and/or its school system, including the potential for a second wave of the pandemic that is widely expected to sweep through the planet this fall.