MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY - Reed Ranch School east of Olds is on COVID-19 alert status after four people in the school community tested positive for the virus, says Chinook’s Edge School Division (CESD) superintendent Kurt Sacher.
The kindegarten to Grade 6 elementary school is now completely on online learning until April 8.
There are 60 students and five or six staff at the school, all of whom are now at home.
“The majority are isolating and then the portion who have not been required to isolate because of Alberta Health process are just participating and supporting everyone by learning from home,” said Sacher.
The decision to go online took place on Sunday, March 28.
“We discovered we were unable to move forward with the current learning model on Sunday,” he said. “On Sunday morning, once we had the information that we had a significant number of students and staff self-isolating, I put in a request to Alberta Education asking for permission to move to online learning and it was approved on Sunday and we got the message out to parents shortly thereafter.”
The school division is not permitted to say whether the cases at Reed Ranch are students or staff.
A school is placed on alert status when two, three or four cases of COVID are identified.
Two Didsbury schools were placed on alert and more than 140 students and 15 staff members were put on self-isolation protocol earlier this month after a total of nine positive COVID cases were identified. The alert has been lifted for Didsbury High School and Ross Ford Elementary.
Those alerts have since been ended.
