By Abby Zieverink

GPPSD

GPPSD ‘slightly surprised’ at province removing mask mandate for students

Feb 10, 2022 | 5:10 PM

Starting Monday, February 14, K-12 students across the province will no longer be required to wear masks at school; and the Superintendent for the Grande Prairie Public School Division says they were “slightly surprised” to hear the news.

“We saw the writing on the wall from the Premier’s announcement saying that some changes were coming to the provincial approach, we didn’t really anticipate that it would be the announcement we received on Tuesday that masks were going away,” added Sandy McDonald.

The announcement came from Premier Jason Kenney on February 8, as part of the province’s announcement of its three-phase plan to remove all COVID-19 restrictions. Kenney said Alberta is able to move in this direction because their data shows the province hit peak COVID-19 infections three weeks ago.

However, McDonald explains they have not been seeing the same evidence at GPPSD.

“We are still seeing high numbers of staff and students who are testing positive for COVID, so we are eagerly awaiting that downward trend and hopeful that it will come into the next couple weeks as we get closer to March 1.”

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Alberta will be rolling into phase two of the province’s three-phase plan to remove all COVID-19 restrictions on March 1, which will see the removal of almost all COVID-19 restrictions.

McDonald explains that through the course of the pandemic many of the decisions made about how GPPSD responds to COVID-19 has been made outside of the school division’.

With that, he says the focus for GPPSD is to adjust to the changes and provide support to staff, students, and parents, to ensure everyone feels safe and supported.

“The reality is, how we feel about it, doesn’t matter all that much. When the government says this is what you must do, well that is what we must do.”

Once February 14 rolls around, all staff, adult visitors, volunteers, and those entering the school will still be required to wear a mask until the provincial mask mandate is removed.

McDonald adds that masks will be optional for GPPSD students.

“Any students who choose to continue to wear a mask can do so. We support that, and anyone who chooses not to (wear a mask), we support that as well.”

Students who test positive for COVID-19 and who are fully vaccinated may have to wear a mask upon returning to school following their isolation period, which McDonald explains is due to provincial health guidelines.

The province’s health guidelines require a 10 day isolation period for all Albertans who test positive for COVID-19. However, those who are fully vaccinated are able to isolate themselves away from others for the first five days and complete the rest of the ten days of isolation by wearing a mask at all times.

“That’s going to be a bit of a challenge for some and we are communicating that to everyone just to make sure they know that the legal requirement still exists, that students and staff who test positive for COVID (and are fully vaccinated) may have to wear masks if they are returning after five days.”

Those who are not fully vaccinated are required to isolate for 10 days.