Students attending Prairie Valley School Division schools will, for the most part, be required to wear masks come fall.
PSVD released its return-to-school plan on Tuesday.
Masks will be required for all students along with staff and visitors if students are around in common spaces including hallways, washrooms, lunchrooms, libraries and buses.
Students born in 2010 or later will be required to wear masks in class, while students born in 2009 or earlier are being recommended to wear masks. However, it will not be enforced.
Staff will only have to wear masks in class if there are students born in 2010 or later. It is recommended that all staff wear masks even in classes where students are born in 2009 or earlier.
All classroom visitors are required to wear masks for all grades.
For students born in 2010 or later, masks are mandatory during after-school extra-curricular activities except during strenuous activity, including competition.
Masks are recommended for students born in 2009 or earlier taking part in after-school extra-curricular activities except during strenuous activity including competition.
Staff will have to wear masks during after-school extra-curricular activities when students born in 2010 or later are present.
Otherwise, masks are recommended to staff during after-school extracurricular activities. The same goes for visitors.
Masks will not be required for anyone when outdoors.
“The intent of the plan is to ensure student and staff safety while allowing schools to incorporate valuable learnings achieved during the COVID-19 pandemic in a way that benefits students in each local context,” PVSD said in its return-to-school plan.
PVSD’s cleaning, disinfecting and hand hygiene practices will continue. Provincial exams will be optional for the 2021-22 school year.
PVSD recommends anyone feeling sick during the school year stay home.
If an outbreak does occur, PVSD says it has a plan in place that would include additional mandatory masking of students and staff, remote learning and reduced attendance of students, transportation services and extracurricular programming.