City school divisions revise COVID protocols
By Lethbridge Herald on September 8, 2021.
The Holy Spirit Catholic School Division and the Lethbridge School Division have both revised their COVID protocols following Friday’s update from the provincial government.
Starting today, all buildings in the Holy Spirit division will require staff and students in K-12 to wear a non-medical mask.
In an update on its website, the division said, “while we understand the importance of language development in the early years and the potential impact of masking, children in Early Learning Programs are still strongly encouraged to wear a mask. Because the nature and layout of our schools do not allow for adequate physical distancing, masks will be required at all times” except when students are eating while sitting, doing physical activity or they are outdoors.
“As we have recently communicated with parents, families and staff, please remain home if you are sick and continue to do the Alberta Health COVID-19 Self-Assessment for everyone in your household,’ says the update.
Superintendent Ken Sampson told The Herald recently “We are cautiously moving forward, knowing full well that should there be any reason at any time to pivot and move in a different direction then we will do so. . . we’re not medical experts so we rely on the experts in the field.”
“We’ve always relied on the direction from both Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Education department in terms of informing our direction,” Sampson told The Herald.
The division’s buildings remain subject to change as information is received from the province.
“We will continue to work with AHS and Alberta Education to provide the best possible learning environment for all our children, students and staff,” Holy Spirit says on its website.
The Lethbridge School Division will be enhancing classroom and school protocols throughout Lethbridge School Division starting Thursday. Students in elementary, middle and high school will be asked to wear a mask in classrooms when they are out of their assigned seating plan and engaged in close-contact activities. At all other times, wearing a mask in the classroom will be encouraged and supported but not required.
In middle school, students will continue to wear masks in the classroom when they are in mixed cohort groups such as option classes.
Additionally, high school students will be required to wear masks upon entering and exiting school, and in common gathering spaces inside the schools.
“This approach considers Alberta’s health protocols while also taking into account the mental wellbeing of our students,” said Board Chair Christine Light in a press release, adding wearing masks in outdoor spaces will also not be required. “When developing these additional mitigation strategies, the Board made the decision to enhance our strategies inside our school buildings, including our high schools.”
At this time, there are no changes to the Division’s protocols regarding extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. Restrictions on after-school activities will continue at the elementary level, while these activities will continue to be allowed at the middle school and high school levels.
Lethbridge School Division will seek to gather feedback on the 2021/2022 Re-Entry Plan via a survey, which will be released on Sept. 15.
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That has really moved me to try and bring their voices to the board.”
Supporting diverse learners is one of the biggest issues Larkin has focused on.
“We have a huge variety of experience and need in our district from newcomers to students with learning needs and we need to see more and more robust support for those folks. At the same time we need to advocate on behalf of the school district to provincial government to make sure we can reverse things like the draft curriculum, which doesn’t represent students as well as cuts to earlier funding and support staff funding
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