Students of and visitors to the school may be required to wear face masks this coming school year, school officials said, despite Ticao’s four towns having successfully prevented the virus from seeping into its porous shorelines.
“We have to protect our gains. It would be a huge waste of our sacrifice and vigilance if after May 15, God forbid!, something goes wrong,” a San Jacinto-based ATF official told this website when asked about which health protocols would be eased.
Accordingly, school safety officer Manuel A. Capellan said that classroom sizes may have to be downsized to as low as 16 instead of the regular 35-40 students per class. Aside from that, added Capellan, “handwashing and hand disinfecting will be implemented as part of the school operating procedures.”
As of presstime, school officials led by Dr. Penelope B. Bagobe and Chief of Staff Noe Esparrago together with the department heads are exploring novel ways to comply with health protocols that would not unnecessarily rock the financial health of the school.
We have to reach a balance that would not compromise the two matters,” Esparrago offered, citing payroll and scheduling issues that would damper whatever solution is decided on.
“These measures pain us too, but by doing so, we will ensure that Liceo as an institution will make it, and in the end, jobs will be saved,” declared Dr. Francisco P. Altarejos, the newly named chair, who on the day of his appointment last January 6, 2020, was already raising the Covid crisis alarm to fellow trustees and officers in a meeting in Liceo.
— Joaquin O. Arevalo Jr.