Staff and students are not in a great position this year at schools in southeast Saskatchewan, constantly having to make adjustments and live with disappointments due to COVID restrictions.
They are perfectly willing to abide by the restrictions for the most part, because they want to eventually see a return to “normal” school life – a life that includes extracurricular involvement in activities that the public can take in and enjoy and appreciate.
So far this school year, the students at the Weyburn Comprehensive School have at least had a few opportunities to play or perform in public, such as the football team winning the 5A provincial championship, or the senior girls volleyball team doing well enough to go to provincials.
Furthermore, the public was able to take in the musical talents of students in the Matilda Jr. musical, and to see two WCS choirs sing at the Quota Festival of Carols on Sunday night.
So what could possibly be the rationale to pick and choose one very important public event, the WCS Winter Music Concert, and ruin it by making it go virtual?
Parents and students are both understandably upset, because no rationale was shared with them nor was there any warning given, as it was just announced on Facebook that this much-anticipated live event would now be taped and shown online, the second year in a row this has happened.
As one parent pointed out, they have no problem abiding by provincial guidelines when they’re put in place – but there was no provincial guideline that said this should happen, and no directive came from the Sask Health Authority.
This was a decision of the board, who apparently felt it was too close to Christmas to risk anything.
So what about the senior girls basketball tournament, held on Friday and Saturday? What about the Matilda Jr. performance, and the two choirs at Carol Festival Sunday?
The reasons put forward by the school board, as stated by education director Lynn Little, do not hold water, and as one parent stated, this seems to target the school’s music program unfairly.
This program was built up over the past number of years with many great talents and productions by many, many students – and now, morale is low, students are disappointed and some are dropping out of band and choir. Why? Because of the unfathomable decision not to allow any public performances other than those noted.
It’s one thing to claim public safety as a concern and the upcoming holidays as a reason, but it’s another to take a decision that will hurt the band and choir programs at WCS, and unfairly causes hurt and disappointment to the students and staff involved in these programs. This was a bad decision by the board.
