Schools shuffle schedules to accommodate H1N1 clinics

SUMMERSIDE - Parent teacher interviews and a professional development day scheduled this week for schools under the Western School Board have been postponed.
The move was made to accommodate the Department of Health and it's flu vaccination program.
"The kids in the Western board had a parent-teacher day set for Thursday so that's been cancelled," said Western School Board Superintendent Dale Sabean. "Public Health are coming in to do immunization and it's for grades one to three."
Schools throughout the western district had scheduled parent-teacher interviews for today and Thursday and there was a professional development day for Friday.
"That professional development day has been cancelled, in the event we don't finish the vaccinations on Thursday," the superintendent said. "We wanted to have a backup day. So Friday is also cancelled as a PD day, meaning schools will be open with one exception. Three Oaks will have a professional PD day for school development. So, that's the only school where there will not be classes in our board."
He said the vaccine should be coming in on Wednesday and public health is ready to go and set up clinics in the western board schools on Thursday.
"What they don't finish on Thursday, they'll finish on Friday," Sabean said.
The decision to postpone the parent-teacher interviews and the professional development day was made quickly, earlier this week.
"I know it's last minute but we didn't want to hold up the vaccination process at all, therefore we said that it would be better to cancel," Sabean said. "We looked at other options, community clinics and so on, but really it's better to go back to the schools I think and so that's why the decision was made. It's grades one, two and three only because they have a limited supply and eventually they will be back in our schools to do the rest of the grades."
Teachers are not losing their professional development day. The superintendent said it would be rescheduled for the spring.