School boards pleased with work of COVID measures so far

When the Saskatchewan government implemented stricter measures Tuesday to help curb the spread of COVID-19, schools were noticeably absent from the list of affected businesses.

Despite cases being identified at schools — including Regina’s Ecole Wascana Plains School on Tuesday and Deshaye Catholic School on Wednesday — the restrictions in place in Saskatchewan’s education system have limited mass transmission so far.

“We haven’t seen large outbreaks in schools and that really speaks to all the layers of protection and all the efforts that parents, children, teachers and staff are doing,” Dr. Saqib Shahab, Saskatchewan’s chief medical health officer, said during a media conference Tuesday. “But that’s something that we are watching very closely.

“Throughout Canada and other jurisdictions, even when case numbers go high, the aim is to keep in-class learning continuing as much as possible.”

Saskatchewan’s schools were closed in March due to COVID-19, forcing students to learn online. In June, the Ministry of Education said students would be back in class for the 2020-21 school year — and the government followed through with that plan.

There have been cases since September and school divisions have responded with classroom or school closures.

As of Sunday, there had been 109 cases at 75 schools around the province in November. The highest number of cases at one school this month was seven at Saskatoon’s Marion M. Graham Collegiate.

There also had been one case at 61 schools, two cases at 14 schools, three cases at three facilities, and four cases at one school.

“We are seeing COVID come into our schools. We aren’t seeing an inordinate amount of transmission within the schools, which tells me that, for the most part, what’s happening in our schools is operating and it’s operating very well,” Premier Scott Moe said.

Schools adopted mandatory masking and physical distancing requirements right off the hop. On Friday, the province recommended that school divisions move high schools with student populations of more than 600 to Level 3 of the Safe Schools Plan, which allowed for a hybrid model of in-class and remote learning.

Most high schools shifted to that approach, reducing the number of daily contacts between students and teachers.

After Friday’s announcement, the Saskatchewan Teachers’ Federation said it felt more measures should have been included for schools.

Shawn Davidson, the president of the Saskatchewan School Boards Association, said Wednesday the association knew from the outset there were going to be cases in schools because “that’s the nature of a contagious virus.”

But the association also is happy that the transmission rate in schools has remained relatively low.

“Certainly we started out the school year with a healthy dose of precaution and, in some cases, were criticized for being very cautious and careful with the COVID protocols,” Davidson said during the Greg Morgan Morning Show. “But it appears the protocols are working.

“We certainly have cases coming into the schools (and) the transmission rate in the school is not zero but very, very low.”

Davidson said the work the school boards have done with Shahab and other health officials has made the association’s efforts mostly successful so far.

Remote learning was presented as an option and some families chose to move their kids into that stream, but Davidson said the fact that most students are sticking with in-person learning is a positive.

“The majority of our students are still attending school in a regular fashion, so I guess we take that as a vote of confidence that parents are confident in what we have going on in the school system,” he said.