It appears High School sports will resume this fall in the North Bay area.
In a joint media release, the area's school boards collectively sent out a release that they are working together to get high school sports back on the field, court, and ice.
"The four local school boards, Near North District School Board, Conseil scolaire public du Nord-Est de l’Ontario, Nipissing-Parry Sound Catholic District School Board and Conseil scolaire catholique FrancoNord, recognize the importance of extracurricular activities in supporting students' mental health, wellbeing and academic development," a late Friday afternoon release stated.
"We are therefore pleased to inform the school community that a protocol has been jointly developed with the support of the North Bay-Parry Sound District Health Unit, and will be posted on school board websites early next week.
The Boards will outline the new protocols which will detail the guidelines and public health measures that must be followed for extracurricular activities, including sports, performances, and competitions.
The Boards say school team practices will be able to begin next week.
"It is important to note that all decisions made by school boards, principals and local public health officials are based on the health and safety of students, staff, supervisors, and service providers," the release continued.
"As such, any risks will be assessed on an ongoing basis and any components of the protocol may be subject to change, or activities may be postponed or cancelled depending on the local public health circumstances. We sincerely thank our school communities for their patience and support as we safely resume extracurricular activities for students."
Earlier in the week, the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit acknowledged discussions on school sports were in the works.
"We have been working with the school boards on this throughout the pandemic and we did work quite a bit with them over the summer and they worked together on a plan for interschool sports that follows ministry guidelines as a minimum standard and as always the Health Unit is always supporting this process, said Shannon Mantha, Chief Nursing Officer with the North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit.
