Medicine Hat Public School Division superintendent Mark Davidson. (Photo Courtesy of Ross Lavigne)

By Chris Brown

Back to school plans

Local school boards welcome increased safety measures from province

Aug 4, 2020 | 5:01 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Area school boards are pleased the provincial government, saying it’s another step toward making schools as safe as possible as they prepare to welcome students back to the classroom in a matter of weeks.

Earlier on Tuesday, Education Minister Adriana LaGrange announced students in Grades 4-12 will be required to wear masks when classes begin for the 2020-21 school year. Mask use for Kindergarten to Grade 3 students will be optional due to difficulties expected with proper fit and compliance.

The government will provide two masks to all students, teachers and other school-related staff. It will also provide hand sanitizer to school authorities as well as other personal protective equipment.

“We appreciate that the government is sending materials that they’re mandating in order to support students,” says Medicine Hat Public School Division superintendent Mark Davidson. “We had taken the step of purchasing hand sanitizer already and so while you wish the announcement maybe would have come a little earlier so you hadn’t expended those resources, we know that we’re going to use them.”

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As the situation for school re-entry remains fluid, Davidson says the public board has worked to be just as flexible.

“We’ve been really working to make sure that we stayed in step with what government was directing needed to happen and building plans to respond in a manner that fits the needs of our community to any change that they send us,” he said. “We knew that masks might become an option or something they mandated. Likewise, we know they very well may put us to scenario two or scenario three and so we’ve planned for those contingencies.”

That includes a strong at-home learning option.

“We know that there are staff and students who for deeply personal reasons, because of compromised immune systems or a loved one in their home that has a compromised immune system for whom that option is better for them,” Davidson said. “And notwithstanding what the level of the virus is in our community the concern alone causes them to want that option and so we’re working hard to provide it, and that’s about knowing that we need to be prepared to serve people where they are.”

Prairie Rose School Division superintendent Roger Clarke says the masks being provided are a benefit for the schools, but a challenge in educating about proper mask use remains.

“As we enter the end of August and early parts of September and we receive this equipment we’re certainly going to have to work with our staff and students in terms of how to best use and how to employ them.

Clarke adds that though today’s announcement may cause parents and students to think the situation has become much more dangerous in recent weeks, that’s not the case.

“As we have these future announcements in the next two or three weeks as we get closer to the school year, I hope parents can see many things are being done by their local principals and by the staff in the school divisions as well as the central office staff to make sure that schools are best prepared so it’s a safe environment for them to return to,” he says. “We can’t unequivocally say that no one will contract COVID-19 in our society as well as in our schools but we certainly can do every measure possible to make sure it doesn’t happen. So I want parents to know that we’re taking those strides.”

In a statement emailed to CHAT News Today, the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education said it is grateful for the PPE and its priority is “the safety and wellness of our staff and students as well as continuing to provide high-quality education to all of our students.”