Students at three Edmonton Catholic schools are heading back to class on Wednesday, and in the absence of updated guidelines from the province, the district is sticking to the COVID-19 protocols that were in place previously.
Those measures include mandatory masking by staff and students, enhanced cleaning, self-screening by students and staff, enhanced hygiene and requiring any visitors to make an appointment before entering a school.
Because they follow a year-round calendar, St. Catherine Catholic Elementary/Junior High, St. Teresa of Calcutta Catholic Elementary and St. Alphonsus Catholic Elementary/Junior High return to classes Aug. 11.
That’s more than 1,000 students, district spokesperson Christine Meadows said.
The province has said updated back-to-school guidance will be issued mid-August. The direction from Alberta Health dictates how schools handle activities, school trips, masking and cohorting, Meadows explained.
She said the school division needs to see that guidance from the province before it finalizes its health protocols. Until that updated guidance is shared, Edmonton Catholic Schools will maintain the most recent Alberta Health guidance, which was last updated in July.
Edmonton Public Schools “are reviewing what the province released last month relative to changes to public health guidelines and what that means for schools,” spokesperson Megan Normandeau told Global News.
Global News reached out to the Calgary Catholic School District to find out what its plans are but did not receive a response. The Calgary Board of Education told Global News that it “continues to monitor the evolving situation.”
“The health and well-being of students and staff is our top priority,” the CBE said Monday. “We will work closely with Alberta Education and Alberta Health to ensure appropriate health and safety protocols are adhered to in our schools and work places.
“Further information regarding CBE return to school plans will be shared with staff and families this month.”
Most of Alberta’s COVID-19 public health measures were lifted on July 1.
“I’m very nervous,” grandmother and former teacher Dianne Hinteregger said. “I think we’ve just opened way too soon.
“I think the schools did an awesome job last year with the protocols in terms of keeping kids safe. I know that our kids were all healthy last year.”
She would like to see some of those health measures remain in place in schools.
“I’m disappointed. As a former teacher, it would be really helpful if there was a consistency with the guidelines throughout the province. It would create far less confusion for everybody.”
Brittany Gunderson, an Edmonton mother of two, is also nervous about back to school for kids in September.
“I’m worried about kindergarten. It’s so hard. They touch everything,” she said.
“It makes me more nervous with less restrictions.”
The latest changes announced by chief medical officer of health Dr. Deena Hinshaw — the end of contact tracing, less testing and lifting mandatory isolation of positive cases — are especially concerning, Gunderson said.
“It makes me absolutely nauseous. It’s an absolute disaster.
“My kid could be sitting beside someone who is sick and we would never know. It makes me really nauseous to think about it, but I can’t imagine him staying home.
“How do you say: ‘Oh yeah, you’re sick. COVID is a thing but we don’t have to worry about it any more,’ when obviously we do?”
At five and nine, Gunderson said neither of her children can be vaccinated yet.
“It’s so scary.”
While the Edmonton Catholic School District cannot ask staff or students if they’ve been vaccinated, the high rate of vaccination in Edmonton and low case numbers seem to have made things better, Meadows said.
The division had about 700 students participate in in-person learning over the summer and not one positive case was reported, she said.
The fact that Alberta Health will no longer be notifying close contacts of positive cases will change schools’ processes, Meadows said.
“That has a big impact and changes the way we were notifying our families last year.
“We have been told that Alberta Health Services will still be working with us if an outbreak is determined in our school(s).”
Edmonton Catholic expects guidance on how to notify families about positive cases in schools will be part of the provincial guidelines.
During a separate news conference on Monday, Premier Jason Kenney said the education ministry and public health are developing a plan for safe reopening of schools.
“We think that is critically important,” the premier said.
“Vaccines are not available to children under the age of the 12 but we also know that COVID-19 does not represent a greater threat for severe outcomes to younger children than the regular seasonal flu,” Kenney added.
“I know that Dr. Hinshaw and her team are understandably concerned of a resurgence of more conventional respiratory virus and diseases this autumn, including various kinds of flus and colds, and want to have the resources to address all of those challenges safely within the school system.”
Dr. Christopher Mody, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of Calgary, told Global News that parents can help mitigate the chance of transmission in a number of ways.
“Children under the age of 12 aren’t eligible to get vaccinated, but all of the adults are and so it’s important for them to become vaccinated so they provide a buffer,” he said. “Also, following public health measures… wearing a mask, hand washing (and) distancing, (which) is dependent on the school, but they should be taught to maintain social distancing to prevent transmission.
“Children, while they get a less severe infection, are still capable of becoming infected and transmitting the infection to other people.”
The deadline for families to select online or in-person learning for Edmonton Catholic schools is Aug. 16.
–With files from Global News’ Jackie Wilson