As schools across the southeast opened their doors on Wednesday, students are now into a new school year. While some students and parents are nervous about safety, Director of Education for the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division, Gwen Keith, says they're confident the schools are safe and they're excited about the school year.

"We've got, I think, some really clear pathways, given the uncertainty that exists in the bigger community with COVID, but we're confident that we are set up."

"The objective of the of the whole COVID agenda is to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID and secondly to look at minimizing any disruption to instructions," Keith noted. "So with that, direction underneath it, we are following a number of different parameters."

"Certainly it involves, if you're sick, stay home," she delineated. "A lot of the parameters we had from last year still in place, proper hand hygiene. You know, what it means to deal with the appropriate social distancing, and and really making sure that protective barriers are there for those that need them and and want them."

Keith said they even have rooms available for those who need to isolate at school.

"We are really trying to make sure we're taking care of our most vulnerable in terms of health conditions, while, in light of it all, we really are trying to be as normalized as we can."

Keith addressed the issue of masks.

"We certainly want visitors to mask and report to the office for further directions. Basically, our students are are masked in common areas and where groups mix. We're starting out with no masks in the actual classrooms to see if we can, you know, with social distancing, keep that to that degree of safety, we certainly have a lot of professional training going on to make sure we are compliant."

She noted the school division works very closely with the health authority, which is why vaccine clinics will most likely not be popping up in the HFRCSSD schools.