École Macneill is ready to welcome students back for another school on Wednesday, September 7th.
Principal Monique Lefebvre says that the building is in great shape.
"There [weren't] any capital projects that were on the go this summer, so right now the school is sparkling because our custodian, Mr. Taylor, has spent all summer cleaning and buffing and waxing the floors and cleaning the walls... The place just looks really shiny and sparkly," she adds.
According to Lefebvre, COVID-19 wasn't a major factor in this year's back-to-school preparations, since most of the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted earlier this year.
"We're looking forward to kind of a return-to-normal start to the school year," she adds.
Lefebvre says that the ongoing shortage of French teachers in the province won't be affecting the school this year, but could affect it next year.
"We have a good staff this year at École Macneill and within Mountain View School Division we've managed to fill all our French-speaking positions," she adds.
Monique Lefebvre went on to say that even though they will be teaching the same curriculum, as usual, they will be incorporating more technology into it.
"Especially with the Microsoft Office, our students are really getting on board.... We have... [an] educational assistance [with a passion for] technology... She's really come on board to teach the students a lot of skills that were needed during COVID, but we can see the benefits of continuing to teach those... technology skills, even at the younger grades," she adds.
According to Lefebvre, they're hoping to offer a lot more extra-curricular activities this year, which she says were sorely missed by both students and teachers.
"[We'll be] getting back to running club, flag football, soccer, track and field, volleyball, basketball, badminton... and any other interest that teachers want to share with their students," she adds.
Lefebvre says that the first day of school will be mainly focused on building relationships and reviewing material from last year.
