More guidance needed to ensure safe return to school: Local ATA rep

That return does come with several health and safety measures that will be put in place, including having hand sanitizers at entryways and in classrooms, frequent cleaning of classrooms, grouping students in cohorts, and planning for physical distancing.

However, MacKay feels key areas like how physical distancing will be maintained without a limit on class sizes is not being addressed in the plan.

“I think a lot of teachers were shocked,” said MacKay. “The government is currently maintaining physical distancing in the legislature… I personally wasn’t just surprised, I was just shocked that there was nothing to address that. Why would that be the case for MLAs and then not having some kind of guidance that way (for schools)?”

He adds that, though not the case for every school in the area, there are many schools that are at full capacity. He worries that without the proper guidance to help ensure physical distancing can be maintained, the spread of the novel coronavirus in schools could be too easy.

“We’ve had schools where people have had to use common areas as their classrooms in the last several years,” said MacKay. “That’s not a rare thing, that is relatively common.”

In the event there is a lack of space in a particular school setting, MacKay says he also has concerns around if and when a student begins to show symptoms of COVID-19 at school.

The province says in that case, the student’s parents need to pick up the child immediately upon the school contacting them. The plan also says a student will be asked to isolate in a separate room or be kept at least two metres away from others.

For MacKay, that works in theory, but if the school doesn’t have the needed space for a sick room or a proper way to separate the infected student, some schools may not be able to properly separate the student.

“No one is under the impression that the government can solve all of this. It’s not like they can make a plan on paper, or pass a policy, that can solve every variant and every issue,” said MacKay. “But they did seem to leave some big holes in terms of hard guidance about physical distancing.”

There is also some concern amongst teachers about how school divisions across the province are going to be able to fund the installation of all needed safety protocols, like hand sanitizer stations and the extra cleaning materials, while dealing with reduced budgets.

The province says to do so, school divisions may dip into reserves to cover any COVID-19 related costs. With some schools operating on limited reserves as it is, it could be harder for some schools. That’s why he would like to see some extra funding for the province’s school divisions.

“The last thing we want is sort of a rich school division, poor school division situation when it comes to the safety of employees and the safety of the students,” said MacKay. “Just some clarity that help will be available, that would go an awful long way in terms of reducing people’s anxiety.”

Grande Prairie MLA Tracy Allard spoke to EverythingGP following Tuesday’s announcement of the return to school plan, where she said following conversations with local school divisions, she is confident Grande Prairie area school divisions are well-positioned to handle the COVID-19 situation and keep kids safe.

MacKay says though that simply, the teachers’ union would like to have some stronger guidance before heading back into the classroom.

“The primary thing is: We’re not sure that everything necessary is being done to make it safe for the students, and the teachers and the EAs and everyone else coming in and out of the building.”

Full details on the province’s back to school plan can be viewed on the Alberta government’s COVID-19 website.

by Shaun Penner

More guidance needed to ensure safe return to school: Local ATA rep

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