MBCI focusing on celebration, community in fall

A Christian school is focusing on the good as students return to the classroom.

Andrea Neufeld, the principal at Mennonite Brethren Collegiate Institute, is excited to see students come back to school.

"We are really excited at the opportunity to be able to have on-campus, in-person learning," Neufeld says. "We have developed a plan that we feel good about."

She says the school has plans, following the provincial guidelines, to keep students and staff safe.

This year, the school will be following new protocols, including introducing cohorts and asking students to wear masks when two-meter distancing is not possible. While COVID-19 protocols are new, MBCI says its community-minded environment will remain the same. 

"One of the things we did that was so important last year was to emphasize celebration and emphasis the creative ways that we can be for each other, and be with each other. We will continue to do that."

Neufeld says that teachers have the technology to instruct both in the classroom and at a distance if required.

She says that throughout the pandemic, the school has been celebrating students and plan to continue doing that in the fall.

"We have to think about what we project to our staff, and what we project to our students and staff," the MBCI principal says that confidence is important to project during the changing times.

She says that staff and students have all kinds of things that they could feel uncertain about and have questions about, but focusing on celebrating the good things from students and staff is important to the school.

"When we focus on that celebration, we continue to see the ways that God blesses us, that God is faithful to us as a community. We continue to see ways that we actually can have smiles, laughter, and good learning happening." 

Set to stagger their opening, MBCI will be welcoming students beginning on September eighth.