The Calgary Board of Education says it will proceed with planning for international trips for the rest of the school year and that it will continue to monitor world events and adjust accordingly.
Following the terror attacks in France, the CBE asked schools to postpone planning for upcoming trips overseas until it could gather feedback from parents, staff and students.
On Monday, the CBE announced that international travel planning would continue with the exception of trips to France.
The CBE says the decision was made after consulting with more than 1000 parents, students and educators who attended meetings at their schools.
Officials also gathered feedback from about 500 online responses and looked at current travel advisories, educational value and the financial impact of cancelling trips.
“Our top priority is the safety of students and staff,” said Chief Superintendent David Stevenson. “This was an extremely difficult decision, and one we did not make lightly. We heard from parents, teachers and students about the value of these global experiences. Parents also urged us to consider the travel advisories for each region. As a system, we also needed to consider the risks.”
The CBE says principals will be contacting families to discuss details for any trips scheduled to France.
For all other trips, parents will be invited to a mandatory meeting to review the next steps and will be advised of any risks and advisories. Parents will also be asked to sign a revised acknowledgement of risk form and can withdraw their child from a trip at any time if they feel they need to.
Last week, Calgary's Catholic School Board made the decision to cancel all trips out of the country for the remainder of the year and instead, limit students to domestic field trips.
Officials say the safety of students and staff is paramount and it will be reassessing the situation in the fall of 2016.
