Regina schools remain optimistic as COVID variant cases rise

Schools in Regina are hoping to weather the storm as the number of cases of COVID-19 variants continues to rise in the city.

The Catholic and public school divisions are still going with in-person learning, but the variant cases have raised some questions as to whether or not in-person learning will be continuing in the short term.

“It’s a concern,” said Domenic Scuglia, the director of education for the Regina Catholic School Division. “We’re not at a point now where the chief medical health officer is advising that we need to move to the level for remote learning.

“So at this point, we’re staying the course.”

There have been many positive COVID cases in Regina schools over the past week, and Luther College High School temporarily opted to close its doors after two positive test results.

The positive cases throughout schools in the city have prompted the Catholic school division to say cases have not been transmitted in any of their schools, instead spreading solely from the community.

Despite the variants’ prominence in Regina, Scuglia is optimistic things will get better sooner rather than later.

“I believe strongly that we are a resilient group of people,” he said. “I’m optimistic that we’re going to come out of this pandemic better than who we were beforehand.

“Nothing’s off the table. If the situation gets to the point where it becomes unsafe for us to continue to operate our school, or we’re running into operational challenges where we’re not able to put staff in front of kids, then we would consider moving to Level 4.”

Regina Public Schools did not make anyone available for comment, but did issue a statement.

“With respect to variants, while we have been told by Public Health to assume that the majority of reported cases may be variants, we are not informed when they are, so we cannot comment on that,” the division said when asked if there was any concern regarding the variants.

The extra personal protective equipment coming to schools in Regina couldn’t come at a better time, giving these schools one more tool in their fight against the virus.

“Our staff will have their surgical masks and their shield and it’s timely because of the rise in variant cases in the city,” Scuglia said. “The additional layer of protection for both staff and students is going to be helpful as we navigate this new strain appearing in large numbers in Regina.

“Whatever we’re getting, it’s going to get us through hopefully until the end of the school year.”

Regina Public Schools said it would be receiving 491,200 adult-sized medical grade masks this week.

Staff and students alike will be able to use the new PPE that features face shields and medical grade masks.

The supplies, purchased for schools around the province from two Saskatoon-based companies, will cost roughly $10 million. That money was allocated to the Ministry of Education by the provincial COVID-19 contingency fund for the purchase of PPE for schools.