There were a number of significant approvals last year in the Hanover School Division and those projects will dictate a lot of the work that will be done this year.

Board chair Ron Falk says design work is underway for the Kindergarten to Grade Four elementary school that will be built in Steinbach.

additional four classrooms being added to Mitchell Middle School. A year ago, the expansion at Mitchell Elementary School was completed.

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“By the time late spring, early summer came around, we thought ‘well maybe by fall it would be back to normal,” Falk recalls.

August looked promising, with all indicators pointing to a fairly normal school year as mask requirements were lifted and the province appeared to be re-opening.

Then masks were mandatory for all students including children in kindergarten, says Falk, adding that September came around with additional requirements for school employees that would take effect in October.

He says a number of Hanover School employees had to be given termination papers after they refused to meet the requirements of becoming fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to regular testing for the virus.

“So, yeah, that’s been a challenging road to say the least,” says Falk, adding that it was really unfortunate the division lost a few really good staff.