Prairie South School Division could decide by Thursday whether students and staff will return to in-person learning soon or continue remote learning for a while longer.
Director of education Tony Baldwin will meet with Chief Medical Health Officer Dr. Saqib Shahab and a local public health nurse on Wednesday, April 7, to discuss the current pandemic situation and how to approach it in the next few months. From this meeting, Baldwin and the board will decide whether parts of the division return to in-person learning on April 12 or remain online.
Baldwin provided the update during the board of education’s April meeting.
“It’s something that’s top of mind for many of our staff and many of our parents,” he said. “I’ve had lots of heartfelt communication from people in the last week or two (who have shared different perspectives).”
Some people think schools should remain closed and students learn from home, while others think students should return to school since those buildings have been safe to this point, Baldwin continued. This has presented a challenge since many people hold those perspectives in the wider public.
Division administration will continue to strive to acquire accurate data and use it to make the best decisions possible for students and employees, he added. The division is also working closely with Holy Trinity Catholic School Division to make similar schooling decisions in Moose Jaw.
With coronavirus variants increasing in the Regina area, the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA) continues to work with the provincial government’s response planning team and Shahab to monitor the situation, said trustee Shawn Davidson. Shahab has told the SSBA that he is impressed with how school divisions have kept students and staff safe during the pandemic, while he indicated that schools continue to reflect the virus’ prevalence in their communities and are not sources or drivers of it.
“He remains very encouraging of in-person learning, and that certainly most areas of the province right now do not have a concern with transmission, and that he very much supports the localized approach and the current model of school divisions being able to make decisions in concert with their local medical health officials,” Davidson added.
The next PSSD board meeting is on May 4.
