Regina schools making temporary move to remote learning due to COVID

Students in Regina’s two largest school divisions will be moving temporarily to remote learning.

Regina Public Schools made the announcement first Friday, saying it consulted with medical health officers before making the decision that was prompted by rising cases of COVID-19 in the city.

The Regina Catholic School Division followed suit later in the day.

“This move to temporary remote learning is in direct response to the (COVID) variant, in an attempt to minimize risk to our students and to our staff,” said Terry Lazarou, the supervisor of communications for Regina Public Schools.

“The decision is a locally made decision that was done by Regina Public Schools. It was supported by the Board of Education and we have the support of medical health officers. We’re very confident that doing this move to remote learning is appropriate.”

Students in public high schools will start learning from home next Wednesday. Students from pre-kindergarten to Grade 8 will make the shift on March 29.

The delay is to allow staff and families to prepare for the change in schedules.

In-class learning for all public school students is to resume April 12, after the Easter break. Lazarou wasn’t sure if that date would be met or if online learning would continue beyond that.

“We don’t have a crystal ball,” he said. “When we did this months ago, it really helped keep our students and our staff safe and lower the COVID cases.

“We can’t say how it will affect our schools this time but we’re fairly confident that by not having the students in the school that we’re minimizing the risk to our school families.”

The public school division did the same thing in December, sending students home to learn before and after the Christmas break.

“We surveyed school families and staff and we heard significant support for that proactive measure,” the division said in a media release. “As with the December proactive intervention, the hope is that this move will allow students to continue with their learning, while minimizing the risk of COVID-19 infection and quarantine disruptions to students and staff in schools.”

The Catholic school division said it too made the decision after consulting with local medical health officers as well as with Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer.

Next week, Catholic elementary students will continue learning at school. The division’s high school students will stay on their current hybrid learning schedules.

From March 29 to April 1, students at all of the division’s schools will learn from home while staff members work in schools.

The division’s Easter break runs from April 2-9. On April 12, the division said it expects to return to Level 2 for elementary students and Level 3 for high school students.

Domenic Scuglia, the division’s director of education, said the idea of remote learning is extremely polarizing.

“We have people who are adamantly against us moving to remote learning and then we’ve got the other end of the spectrum, where we have families that are very frightened by the way this new variant is moving rapidly through our city,” Scuglia said.

“For families who have to put food on the table and have to go to work, this can really be an inconvenience for sure. We’ve always been about making sure that we’re going to ensure safety as a priority in our decision-making.

“When we combine safety with our inability to operate because we don’t have enough staff to cover absenteeism, then we’ve got to make some changes.”

In a media release, the division said the availability of substitute staff could have an impact on the instruction and supervision provided if teachers become ill.

The Catholic division announced cases at Deshaye and St. Theresa schools on Friday, meaning there have been 32 cases at 19 Regina schools since last Friday. St. Theresa has had five cases this week alone.

“We’ve had a number of cases — way more than the public division — and they’re all coming from the community,” Scuglia said.

The Catholic division also employed a lengthy break in December to help fight the spread of the virus.

Luther College High School moved to remote learning on Tuesday after two positive COVID tests. Students who live in the high school’s dorms were locked down, while other students were sent home to learn online.

— With files from 980 CJME’s Logan Stein