Cornerstone Christian School has moved to remote learning due to concerns about COVID-19 variant cases in the area and plans to return to in-class learning after the Easter break.
Prairie South School Division (PSSD) announced that its associate school was moving online in a letter to families on March 24 as part of an update about the pandemic.
“We made that (decision) together with the Saskatchewan Health Authority and our public health folks … just based on the COVID activity here in town,” Tony Baldwin, director of education, told the Express.
Division office staff have considered moving every school to online learning but are still working through that process, while they continue to watch what other school divisions in and around Regina are doing, he continued. PSSD continues to speak with health officials about the best course of action.
There have been 51 positive cases of COVID-19 found in PSSD schools since November, with some cases found in the last week connected to a variant similar to one in Regina, the letter said. However, division officials are confident that current contact tracing and safety processes are working, and there is no need yet for large-scale online learning.
“Although we are all getting tired of masks and hand sanitizer, it is more important than ever that we maintain safety processes as the variants of concern are much more easily transmitted than earlier strains of COVID,” the letter continued. “We recognize that staff and students are looking forward to a time when we can relax some of the restrictions in our schools, and we will do this when it is safe to do so.”
Baldwin told the Express that he struggles with whether to close schools and force students into online learning.
“I wish we had a flow chart that ended in, keep everybody in class on one side and remote learning on the other side. But it’s quite a bit more complex than that,” he continued. “We have been working very closely with public health, who are very worried about other variants of COVID that are emerging in Moose Jaw and area … .
“We let them do the medical work, and once they’ve got the medical work sorted out, we do the school stuff.”
Besides Cornerstone Christian School, about five classrooms throughout the division are in self-isolation since some students or teachers in those rooms have been exposed to the coronavirus.
Baldwin was not able to say how many people exactly had been infected. Yet, he thought those numbers would likely increase in the coming days and weeks due to the variants. He pointed out that many who are isolating were not exposed at school, but instead, in non-school settings.
“In general … there wouldn’t be very many days since November that we haven’t had at least one classroom in self-isolation,” he added.
The provincial government recently sent thousands of COVID-19 rapid test kits to every school division in Saskatchewan. Prairie South received 3,600 kits but has elected not to use them until local public health officials determine when they are needed. Moreover, the division will not deploy them until the Ministry of Health sends people trained to use them.
Catholic school division
Holy Trinity Catholic School Division is closely monitoring the situation with the variants and is working with public health officials to remain aware of any potential changes from the current situation, said education director Sean Chase.
The decision to move to online learning would involve speaking with those health-care professionals and reviewing the number of positive cases in schools and increases in transmission rates in the division’s three main communities, he continued. They would also watch what is happening in Regina.
“Those would be determining factors in any consideration for us to move to level four,” added Chase.
According to the division website, there have been 12 confirmed COVID-19 cases in 10 schools in Holy Trinity since November.
