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By Teagan Rasche

'In-person learning is the best for our students'

Local superintendents happy to welcome students back Monday, but not without concerns

Jan 6, 2022 | 4:45 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Empty schools will soon be filled with teachers and students despite rising COVID-19 cases.

The provincial government announced Wednesday that in-person learning will resume on Monday.

“We’ve always said that in-person learning is the best for our students and I know that all of our parents agree with that as well that they’re excited to have their children back in school to be with their friends and engaging in all of their activities they do in school,” Dwayne Zarichny, superintendent of the Medicine Hat Catholic Board of Education said.

Prairie Rose superintendent Reagan Weeks and Medicine Hat Public School Division’s Mark Davidson are also happy with the province’s announcement schools will be back to in-person learning in just a few days.

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“For most students, being face-to-face allows them a better opportunity to get guidance from their friends, to seek support from teachers, the teacher in front of them and others in the building,” Davidson said.

As students go back, more safety measures are expected. The province is providing them with 8.6 million rapid tests and 16.5 million masks.

“We are anticipating that it should arrive tomorrow,” Weeks said. “We do have some KN95 masks purchased in the event the shipments are delayed.”

Both the public and Catholic divisions expect their shipments next week. But despite the additional masks and rapid tests, other concerns remain.

“We have a relatively low level of sub support in our schools,” Davidson said. “A fair number of our subs have taken themselves out of the sub pool through the course of COVID.”

Another concern is air filtration as not all the schools in our area have HEPPA filters. The public school division uses Corsi–Rosenthal Boxes.

“A fan system that increases the rate of air exchange in classrooms,” Davidson said. “It runs through filters that are filtered for the virus so we’ve been putting those in classrooms as a secondary means of support in order to try and address the challenges we have in some of our older buildings.”

Prairie Rose is doing what it can too.

“We do have air quality that is tested annually and we continue to monitor that,” Weeks said. “But we have not yet installed HEPPA filters.”

The Catholic division is following the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers recommendations.

“These are recommendations that even Alberta Education and Alberta Health follow and all of our schools not only meet those expectations but are exceeding them,” Zarichny said.

As for the rest of the school year, this extra week shouldn’t affect any of the three divisions’ calendars. The missed classroom time will be made up during normal school days.