WEYBURN – The responses and rules for dealing with COVID in the classroom are constantly changing and evolving, including the standards for outbreaks in a class, the trustees of the Holy Family School Division were told at their January board meeting, held virtually.
Education director Gwen Keith shared the latest updates from the ministry of Education on managing COVID in the schools, and noted that, in consultation with public health, an outbreak is no longer declared when three students in a class have tested positive.
“We have direct email communications with the parents and staff with regard to provincial information,” she said, pointing out that the data is watched daily to see what is happening at the schools.
As of Wednesday night, when the board meeting was held, Holy Family had 36 students in four schools who were considered active cases, along with six staff.
Keith noted that free rapid test kits are available at all of the schools for families and staff, and said sanitation supplies at the schools are in place, including ensuring products that are sensitive to children’s skin is used. Maintenance staff are also looking at ventilation levels in the classrooms, as this is important to keep a fresh flow of air in each school.
Extra-curricular activities are continuing, with part of the challenge being that extra-curr activities are ongoing in the communities, such as hockey, so it wouldn’t make sense to restrict at the school level, she said.
While health officials used to declare an outbreak if three students or 10 per cent of a class tested positive, now the standard is whether a teacher can manage a class with the number of students still coming to school.
“It’s an inexact science, but it’s not three students or 10 per cent as they did with past variants. We haven’t had any definitions of what is an outbreak,” said Keith, adding none of the principals in Holy Family are ready to go remote with learning as yet.
The decision to go remote comes down to the local level, noted board chair Bruno Tuchscherer.
She noted that Holy Family staff and students have a lot of experience with going remote, if it comes down to that, but the preference of staff and administrators is for as much in-person learning as possible.
“It spreads so quickly, the chance of us getting this Omicron variant is much much higher,” said Keith.
In the meantime, the attendance in each class is being monitored, and the ministry is looking at the challenges that school divisions are facing, including how special needs children are being looked after during this time.
Keith also noted that part of the challenge with staff members is they themselves are dealing with family members at home, and this may be part of the overall picture in terms of whether to be remote or not. “We have to determine how we can run the place with 25 per cent of the staff gone. Can we run this place off-site?” she asked.
Another part of the challenge is when a student is absent, staff need to ascertain the reason, whether it’s for COVID, or because a parent makes a choice based on being uncomfortable with the level of infections at school.
“We’re trying to keep parents as current as we can. We’ll continue to watch and determine if it’s peaked and going down. That’s something we’re hoping is the case, but we need to prepare for another two to three weeks of rough going,” said Keith.
She added that this whole process, in her mind, is “normalizing the pandemic. We’re being forced to live with it. It feels like we’re moving out of a pandemic into endemic, and we’re going to have to live with it.”
