The Alberta Teachers’ Association is speaking out after at least three Lethbridge schools – Park Meadows Elementary, Westminster Elementary and Mike Mountain Horse Elementary – declared respiratory illness outbreaks in the last 10 days.
That means at least ten per cent of students are absent due to respiratory illness, which can include COVID-19.
As children aged five to eleven continue to lead the province in case rates, Alberta Teachers’ Association president Jason Schilling says there’s worry about the possibility of moving lessons online.
“The concerns that I’ve been hearing from people is that we’re going to be repeating the challenges and the difficulties of last year,” Schilling said. “We should not be doing that and we should not be in that situation.”
While those three Lethbridge schools are currently continuing in-person learning, five schools in the province have been approved to move online.
On Thursday, with some schools moving to home, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr. Deena Hinshaw said changes to the province’s COVID-19 reporting will be coming.
Right now, if a school reaches that 10 per cent threshold it must notify Alberta Health Services.
“We are working with the ministry of education. We know that the changes we needed to make over the past week to our COVID-19 response need to be taken into account as we determine the final framework for our reporting,” Hinshaw said.
One change that Schilling says needs to be made is a return to contact tracing by the province, which wasn’t included in August’s back-to-school plan.
“They need to bring back this contact tracing regime so that schools have that basic health information and government needs to be doing that,” Schilling said.
“This is not a job of schools, principals (or) teachers.”
As for when the changes will be made, Hinshaw promised “soon.”
The Holy Spirit Catholic School Division currently has two schools with a 10 per cent absenteeism rate, St. Catherine in Picture Butte, Alta., and St. Joseph in Coaldale, Alta.
Neither Holy Spirit nor the Lethbridge School Division were available for comment on Friday.