INNISFAIL — Excited children in the public and Catholic school systems are heading back to class this week with hope the new COVID-19 prevention plan will keep them productive and safe.
“We deal with kids and we are filled with hope on a daily basis. We also have faith,” said Jodi Smith, associate superintendent of inclusive learning for Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools.
“But when we are met with students on that first day and they are all smiles and excited to be there, and there will be some who aren’t, but for some students they can’t wait to be back to school and socialize.
“I also believe what the scientists have been sharing with us is that the vaccine is helping, whereas a year ago we didn’t even know we had that, so I think there is always the hope,” she added.
Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools classes began Aug. 31 while those with the Chinook’s Edge School Division start Sept. 1.
On Aug. 13, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, the province’s chief medical officer of health, announced a new pandemic plan to extend public health measures until Sept. 27. Her announcement came as new COVID cases were increasing dramatically in Alberta, particularly those with the Delta variant. On Aug. 13, 582 new cases were confirmed in the province. Those numbers have since doubled.
Hinshaw’s back-to-school COVID guidelines do not include mandated in-class masking, but they will be mandatory on buses. As of Sept. 7, temporary vaccination clinics will be offered to students from grades 7 to 12, as well as to teachers and staff. Parental permission is required before a vaccine is administered to any student.
The Aug. 13 announcement also included a mandatory isolation measure for 10 days for anyone with COVID-19 symptoms or a positive test result, and testing at assessment centres for any symptomatic individual.
Last week, the region’s public and Catholic school boards released their own back-to-school strategies and both followed Hinshaw’s direction. However, the strategies from both school boards remain flexible to meet any challenge or outbreak caused by the COVID-19 virus.
“As the COVID-19 situation continues to change, Chinook’s Edge will remain highly vigilant of safety protocols and will review these items on a regular basis,” said Chinook’s Edge in a letter sent to parents.
“We are working to provide optimal safety for everyone in our school communities, as we focus on engaging every student in meaningful learning.”
Smith told The Albertan last week that while her school board is moving forward under the expertise of Alberta Health and Alberta Health Services, officials are fully prepared to make necessary adjustments to ensure the safety of school communities.
“If we had to switch because something has happened, we would get kids masks immediately, we would do markers if that is what we would need to do,” said Smith. “We are prepared for any of those pieces that we might have to move on.”
For now, Smith said her school board will have vaccination clinics available for staff and students who have parental consent.
“There will be documents they will have to fill out from Alberta Health Services that would be giving permission for their children to get their vaccinations,” she said.
Kurt Sacher, the superintendent of schools for Chinook’s Edge, said for schools with older grades there is a threshold that has to be met before a vaccination clinic will even be created.
“Parents have to consent, and we’ve sent those forms home on behalf of Alberta Health. If there is enough interest for a clinic, they will run one and if not, there wouldn’t be a clinic in a particular school,” said Sacher, adding clinics would be located in school spaces that are out of the way and not taking away the learning and operation of any school.
“We learned how to be flexible and accommodating and how to be resilient,” added Sacher of the learning curve his school division has encountered during the pandemic.
“We’re optimistic that it (school year) won’t be as disruptive as it was last year but we are also realistic, and we put that out to our staff and administrators as recently as this week, that we’re probably not out of the woods yet.
“There is probably going to be some disruption at some point, and then Alberta Health will respond accordingly.”
