Neck guard sales jump after Sask. hockey player slashed by skate
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Students in Saskatchewan are among the only ones in the country back at school this week, after other provinces pushed the start of classes back a week or more because of growing COVID-19 case numbers.
Dr. Shawn Davidson, president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association (SSBA), said the divisions he has heard from agree with the province’s education minister, who said pushing the start back a few days wouldn’t have had much value.
“When all the other community activities still continue to take place … there really wouldn’t be a whole lot of value in treating schools dramatically differently, because really, community transmission is really what’s been driving this from the beginning anyway,” said Davidson.
Davidson said schools haven’t been a major vector of transmission of COVID-19, and he agreed that they want to keep kids in class and keep schools operating for as long as possible.
He met with division representatives on Thursday morning, and said with the current surge in Omicron cases and the possibility for more, there are two main concerns they have.
The first has been a concern for a while: The workload schools are being asked to handle. Davidson said the Ministry of Health has given over contact tracing and notification letters almost entirely to schools.
“That’s really putting some pressure on our administrative teams as far as actually getting that work done. We’ve got capacity to manage the education work that we do, but when we start doing the work of other ministries and other sectors, that becomes really challenging for us,” said Davidson.
Divisions have been doing this work from the beginning, but Davidson said they’ve been saying since the beginning that they don’t have the capacity to do it.
Davidson said schools are also concerned for the future about absenteeism in staff and students due to COVID sickness and close contacts.
“We certainly are not at a point yet where that is concerning to the point that it’s disrupting operations, but it is something that all the divisions around the province are monitoring,” he explained. “And based on some of the cautions that Dr. (Saqib) Shahab shared in his news conference … the divisions are aware that there could be a more significant surge of cases that could affect our operations.”
No school divisions have come forward to Davidson yet saying missing staff or students is having an impact right now. He said divisions are working on contingency plans.
“At the local level, divisions are working on ‘what-if’ sort of scenarios and making plans just in case and making plans to pivot to other modes of delivery, if necessary,” said Davidson.
The pandemic has put a lot of extra strain on divisions in the way of costs and Davidson said they’re not going away any time soon. There was some funding provided by the provincial government, but according to Davidson, it’s likely mostly gone now.
“As we look into the rest of the school year and into the next semester, as these increased costs continue to be in place, we are certainly talking to the government about what some of our requirements are in order to be able to support those additional expenditures,” he said.
Divisions also want to see the education response planning team established again. Davidson said they appreciated all the work that was done when it was active and that the collaborative approach to things was really beneficial.
“Some of these conversations around things like contact tracing, in the past, would have taken place at that table and there would have been a forum for us, as the education sector, to share some of those concerns directly with officials from the Ministry of Health and even with the chief medical health officer,” said Davidson.
Some parents are concerned about their kids being at school and the potential risks involved, and Davidson encourages them to call their local schools and divisions to find out their specific plans. He said boards are continuing to work with health officials and following the health recommendations.