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Sask. school divisions release return to school plans for Sept.; no masks required yet

The Ministry of Education has shared the core guidelines for students and staff returning to schools in the fall
SK schools announcement
Deputy Premier and education minister Gordon Wyant and chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab during a press conference on Aug. 4. (screenshot)

The Ministry of Education and the school divisions within the province of Saskatchewan have released the safety plans and protocols for the return to classrooms in September.

Deputy premier and minister of education Gordon Wyant shared an overview of the protocols now in place on Aug. 4 in an online press conference.

“Every effort is being made within the plan to ensure that transmission risk in minimized, but that risk is not eliminated,” said Wyant. “Saskatchewan people have been able to return to a new normal and resume their daily activities, and we now ask for their continued cooperation as we adjust to a new level of normal for schools. We have made every effort to make that adjustment as comfortable and safe as possible for students, for parents, and for our staff.”

All of the 27 school divisions in the province were required to submit their drafted safety plans to the Saskatchewan Education Response Planning Team and provincial chief medical health officer Dr. Saqib Shahab, to ensure each plan meets the eight central guidelines developed in the provincial safety plan.

Those guidelines are currently set on returning to classrooms as normally as possible, said Wyant, with a focus on reducing physical contact between students in the classroom.

Details will differ between each school division, but all schools will be expected to adhere to the following protocols.

Parents are being asked to keep children home if they show signs of illness, and schools will be required to have a quarantine space and protocols in place if a child does show COVID-19 symptoms at school.

Increased sanitation in schools will be required, including high touch surfaces in classrooms, and hand sanitizer will be made available to students and staff. 

Schools will not be reducing classroom sizes at this time but will have procedures in place to control contact between students, including dedicated entrances and exits, staggered breaks and class transition times, and directional flow in hallways.

No-contact activities will be encouraged, and schools will be asked to utilize outdoor learning spaces whenever possible. Extracurricular activities will be allowed on a division basis, with outdoor sports allowed at this time.

Safety procedures will be in place on school busses as well — including seating plans, mandatory cleaning between trips, and potentially plexiglass shields — but parents are being encouraged to drive their children to school as an alternative.

Wyant noted that protocols in place are considered to be at Level One of a four-level safety plan, which will be adjusted according to recommendations from Shahab if the pandemic changes in Saskatchewan.

Masks will not be mandatory in classrooms at this time, unlike other provinces such as Alberta have announced, which Wyant and Shahab addressed.

“All of the precautions that are outlined in the resumption of schools plan are meant to minimize transmission within a cohort, a classroom with a teacher, an between classes,” said Shahab. “Many experts have said you need to provide as normal and reassuring an environment as possible when school starts, especially for younger children, so the plan as outlined today and as designed takes into account that when you have low transmission as we did in June and July, you can start school without masks.”

Shahab went on to explain that masks would be most effective in an indoor environment where physical distancing is more difficult.

Mandatory masking in schools would be part of Level Two of the province’s plan, which will be provided by the Ministry of Education for students and staff. 

Wyant shared that the province has 6 million masks ordered in the event that schools shift to Level Two, and Shahab encouraged families to be prepared with their own masks as well.

Level Three would involve reduced capacity in schools and a shift to cohort models of education, and Level Four would mean a complete shift back to the online, distance method of education from earlier this spring.

With the school year set to begin as early as Sept. 1 for some, individual divisions have been asked to share the details of their safety protocols with parents, students and staff themselves.

NDP education critic Carla Beck responded to the provincial government's return to school plan in a separate online news conference, expressing disappointment in the lack of details regarding level thresholds and the absence of increased funding for schools in the province.

The full details of the Saskatchewan Safe School Plan guidelines are available here.

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