The schools in the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division will remain at Level 2 for the time being, the board of trustees heard at their Dec. 9 board meeting.
Under the province’s Safe Schools Plan, there are four phases for schools in the COVID-19 pandemic environment. Level 1 is full in-class learning with some additional measures to ensure student and staff safety; Level 2 is full in-class learning with mask usage for students and staff.
Level 3 is reduced in-class learning, where students go to class every other day, with half capacity in the building; and Level 4 is transition to alternative learning opportunities offered by the school division.
“When you listen to what’s happening, there is a bit of a trend to schools moving to higher levels. Prince Albert and Regina have gone to Level 4. At this point, it’s still being left to local school divisions to determine what level they want to go to,” said director of education Gwen Keith.
She added there’s always a possibility that the chief medical health officer might step in and mandate that school divisions are to go to a higher level.
There was one instance of a student at St. Augustine School having to self-isolate, but Keith pointed out there haven’t been any cases of COVID transmissions in any Holy Family schools. In spite of this, there are some parents who are anxious about the whole situation.
“Our plan is to work with the principals. They have plans if we have to move to Level 3 or 4,” she added.
One issue that hasn’t come up so far is the number of sick days taken by staff. They had expected to see more sick days, but so far that hasn’t been happening.
Chief finance officer Lisa Wonsiak noted that the costs for substitute teachers have been lower, and this is happening in other school divisions as well.
“The level of time off and sick time is down, which is unusual. We had expected it to be higher,” said Wonsiak.
One issue that has come up is that people who get COVID tests can often wait five to 10 days for results, and sometimes people are only advised of positive tests results, not of the negative test results.
“There’s a five to 10-day delay in getting results. That’s a significant amount of time,” said Wonsiak.
Keith noted that if people register with E-Health, they can get their results much faster. “That’s one way to help the health system,” she said.
Wonsiak agreed, pointing out it’s not just for COVID tests, but for any other medical test results that a patient might be waiting for word on.
Wonsiak also updated the board on the COVID funding request that Holy Family has made to the Ministry of Education, pointing out this is “a large ask,” but this next round of funding will provide a large amount of funds needed for everything from staffing needs to cleaning and sanitizing supplies and PPE.
Holy Family got their application in by Dec. 1, and the hope is that the funding will be known before Christmas, so that any new staffing can be in place when school is back after the Christmas-New Year’s holidays in January.
Holy Family has requested about $2 million in funding to cover off everything they need to deal with COVID and COVID-related expenses, said Wonsiak. “The focus for the ministry is making sure the request matches the size of the schools. We’ll see how we fare,” she added, noting they received $51,000 in the first round of funding for COVID expenses.
Asked if it will be difficult to find personnel for January, she answered, “That’s going to be a challenge.”
They might have to try and get students coming off internships, or pull people from other assignments, she said. “It’s not going to be that easy. We’re going to be competing with South East Cornerstone, so it’s going to be a challenge for sure. For support staff, I feel more positive.”
