WINNIPEG – There are still 5,563 people displaced by the wildfires in Manitoba, one of the provinces hardest hit by the blazes and still the one with the highest number of active fires: 127 out of a total of 565, according to data from the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC) as of 1pm today (here the updating in real time). This means, among the various inconveniences for evacuated families, that the start of the school year could also be somewhat different for students unable to return home.

Schools in Brandon and Winnipeg are preparing space in their classrooms for hundreds of children displaced by the wildfires who will not be home for the first bell of the fall semester. “We are making sure that our schools are welcoming places … making arrangements to have supplies ready, looking at staffing scenarios, nutrition” Brandon School Division Supt. Mathew Gustafson told CBC.

Families of evacuated students can enroll their children in the school division to which they were evacuated, and the Ministry of Education, school divisions, and community organizations are working together to ensure “no student is left behind due to displacement” a provincial spokesperson said. At least two schools in the Brandon School Division can accommodate additional students, and others can set up classrooms in auxiliary spaces, such as libraries and staff rooms, if necessary to meet demand, Gustafson said. Consideration is also being given to setting up classrooms in hotels where some of the displaced families are staying.

Winnipeg School Division staff, including elders and knowledge keepers, are visiting hotels, meeting with families and assisting with registration, as well as speaking with parents about school safety, said Superintendent Matt Henderson. “There are probably families who don’t trust the school system in Winnipeg or at least leery of it.… We want to make sure that we’re doing it in a culturally responsive way” he said. “We can’t just sort of put it on placards or send an e-mail. It’s simply not going to work…”. And because many displaced people in Winnipeg are staying near the airport, Henderson said they’re also working with the nearby St. James School Division to support those families.

Delhia Hart-Francois, Chief of the Marcel Colomb First Nation, said that after nearly two months away from home, the children of the northern Manitoba community long for a normalcy they can’t achieve without school. And they will, thanks to everyone’s efforts and despite the fires.

Photo by MChe Lee from Unsplash