Calgary Catholic School District plans to continue offering online learning, no decision from CBE

The Calgary Catholic School District says online learning will continue to be an option for families next school year — and hopefully in years to come.

Chief superintendent Bryan Szumlas said the district will ask parents to make their choice in the next two months.

"Some people may say, 'well, that's a little early. I want to wait and see what's happening with COVID before I make my choice.' However, we need to do it now because the Calgary Catholic School District is centrally managed," he said.

"That means for our staffing of teachers — we need to make all those decisions. And then schools they begin gearing up for next fall as well and registering students for courses and a whole bunch of work that happens prior to September."

Online learning post-pandemic

The Catholic school board has about 6,000 students registered in its K-9 online school, St. Isidore, and 1,500 students registered for high school online through the Saint Anne Academic Centre. 

"What we're doing is forward thinking here. We know that the vaccine is getting rolled out, but the vaccine has not been approved for students or children under 16 at this point in time," said Szumlas.

"So I think parents out there, they'll want choices, again as to whether or not they want their students to be in face to face or in online."

The superintendent said the district hopes to build on the online programming that was born out of necessity due to COVID-19.

"There's an appetite out there, and some students just excel and do really well in this environment," he said. "It's something that Calgary Catholic would like to continue offering once we get through the pandemic."

Future of CBE Hub undecided 

The Calgary Board of Education said it has yet to make a decision about the future of its Hub online learning. 

"We are reflecting on all that we learned about supporting students online in the spring of 2020 and the experiences we had with Hub in the first semester. The CBE also has an established online learning program, CBElearn," said the district in an emailed statement. 

"We are currently exploring online learning options for CBE students for the 2021-22 school year."

The CBE had 18,130 students register for Hub in September, but as of this month, 3,400 of those students have moved back to in-person learning.