Creighton Community School would typically expect close to 200 students from Denare Beach to make the daily trip for classes in the border town, but this year is different.
Some of those Denare Beach students are returning after their family homes were destroyed when a wildfire tore through the northern village earlier this summer. Some students might not be back this year.
In advance of the new school year, Creighton school staff were contacting families affected by wildfire to let them know about extra support available for students, said Steve Lytwyn, director of education for the Creighton School Division, which consists solely of the K-12 Creighton Community School.
“Every child is different, so some students are going to want that support right away when they come in the doors,” Lytwyn said in an interview.
“Other students are going to maybe want to just go to class and kind of have a little bit of the regular routine or normalcy, as much as you can say that after such a traumatic summer.”
The school brought in extra counsellors, and staff received training this summer that focused on responding to traumatic events, Lytwyn said.
Creighton, which shares a border with Flin Flon, Man., is about 15 kilometres north of Denare Beach and the closest community with a school. Last year, the school registered about 190 of its 463 students from the Denare Beach area, which includes the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation community in the village.
It’s still not known how many students from wildfire-stricken Denare Beach — where around 200 families lost their homes to wildfire — are returning for the first week of class.
Denare Beach resident Brooke Kindel is currently living in Creighton with her husband and three kids in a camper parked at her parents’ rental property. Kindel and her parents lost their homes to wildfire.
Like many displaced families, they’re waiting on timelines out of their control to decide where they end up for the year.
If foundations for rebuilds are poured before the snow hits and they can build a shop, the Kindels might move their camper there while building a new house. If the foundations have to wait until spring, they might move to Saskatoon for the year.
“Everybody is very, very busy trying to find a place for winter, so it’s pretty competitive to find a contractor,” Kindel said.
“I’ve been really grateful for so many people understanding the difficult position that we’re all in. It’s hard to explain that we literally don’t know where we’re going to be living next week, but that’s just the reality of the situation. And it feels like that’s kind of how it’s been all summer.”
Her oldest boy Jackson is heading into a third-year of pre-Kindergarten, while the middle boy Logan has been in daycare this summer, but would normally be at home during the day. Callie, the daughter, was born about a month after the family evacuated Denare Beach.
Getting back into a routine will help her kids, especially her oldest, Kindel said.
“It’s confusing if you’re moving around because all those kids are always together,” she said.
“He knows everybody in his class. So he’s really looking forward to getting to see everybody and hopefully we can stay, because he’ll be pretty upset if I have to pull him out. But I don’t know what else to do.”
After wildfire evacuations, it’s important for schools to facilitate access to education no matter where students end up, the Canadian School Boards Association recently told CBC News.
When a student moves schools for the typical reasons, a new school will ask the old school for the student’s file. Lytwyn expects those requests will come in over the next few weeks, giving the Creighton school a better idea of which displaced students are returning and which ones registered for school in other places.
Lytwyn said families should reach out to the school if they have concerns about a child returning to class or talk about their plans for the school year.
“If they’re not technically living in Creighton or Denare Beach anymore, we want what’s best for them wherever they’re currently living,” Lytwyn said.
Wildfires ripped through the town of Denare Beach, Sask., a few weeks ago. On Wednesday, residents started returning to see what’s left of their homes.
