Brandon schools going remote

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This article was published 10/05/2021 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Schools in both Brandon and Winnipeg are shifting back to primarily remote learning on Wednesday.

The change is expected to remain in place until May 30, Education Minister Cliff Cullen announced during a Sunday afternoon media briefing.

Schools in other parts of the province will face other new health measures.

Additional closures and measures will be considered as new circumstances come forward, chief provincial public health officer Dr. Brent Roussin said.

“We need to act now to break these transmission chains,” he said, adding the change comes with some reluctance.

“We want to keep as many children in school as we can … and that’s why we’ve always wanted the schools to be the last place to close and the first to open.”

Approximately 20 per cent of new COVID-19 infections have been among school-aged children, of whom three-quarters have been in Winnipeg and Brandon.

There were 176 schools in the province with one or more case of COVID-19 a week ago, and at latest count there were 213, of which 17 resorted to remote learning.

Although Roussin maintains schools have done an excellent job of protecting people from the virus, in-school transmission is still taking place.

“Much less than it’s occurring in the community,” he clarified, adding most cases linked to student-aged children are occurring as a result of after-school gatherings.

There’s no specific cause of transmission within schools, he said, but going back to remote learning will offer a “very good way to interrupt those transmission chains.”

Kindergarten to Grade 6 students whose parents are critical service workers who cannot make alternative care arrangements will be accommodated with continued in-school class time, Cullen said.

Further, high-risk students and those with special needs from K-12 will also be accommodated with in-school class time.

Cullen pointed to these accommodations and $185 million in funding for schools’ COVID-related expenses as helping ease people through this difficult time.

Approximately $160 million is anticipated to be spent by the end of the school year, and more funding is expected to free up thereafter.

The impending shift back to remote learning for most students will mean even more difficult times ahead, said Brandon School Division board of trustees chair Linda Ross.

“My personal feeling is safety first, so cases are rising everywhere; we’ve had several cases in Brandon schools in the last couple weeks, so I think it’s probably a good idea,” she said.

“We’re in a better position than we were earlier in the pandemic because people have done this before, so it will be easier to do the turnaround.”

That said, she added teachers will be even more strained than ever, particularly since they’ll be expected to handle both remote learning and in-person instruction.

The additional funding from the province announced is welcome, but she said money only goes so far when you’re drawing from a limited pool of teachers.

“We’ve hired everyone we’ve been able to find, so it’s certainly putting a strain on the system,” she said.

Thus far in Brandon, she said in-school transmission has not been an issue.

“These cases have been contracted outside of schools, and so you catch them right away and people isolate,” she said. “As far as we can tell, there has been very little transmission in schools.”

On Sunday, the Brandon School Division announced one case of COVID-19 in a Maryland Park School grades 3-5 classroom on May 4-6. As with other cases, the province has clarified the “infection was not believed to be acquired at school.”

In the province’s latest rundown of COVID-19 in schools during the two weeks leading up to May 5, they reported 574 active cases, including 478 students and 96 staff members.

Within this time frame, they reported 16 cases in Brandon schools, including:

• One case at Prairie Hope High School

• Three cases at École New Era School

• One case at King George School

• Three cases at Vincent Massey High School

• One case at Meadows School

• One case at École secondaire Neelin High School

• Two cases at George Fitton School

• Four cases at Crocus Plains Regional Secondary School

These rising numbers have been “a major concern,” Ross said. “It’s better to be too careful than not careful enough.”

In addition to her concern for staff, Ross said she worries about the parents of young children who will now have to miss work in order to look after their kids — an impact likely to carry a financial sting.

Child-care facilities will remain open, but the province has said children who are on remote learning at school should not attend child-care facilities before or after school hours.

During Sunday’s media conference, Cullen was asked about the province’s dashed plan to have teachers vaccinated in North Dakota.

At latest update, the province was instead seeking to have vaccines shipped from North Dakota to teachers in Manitoba.

“Certainly, discussions are still underway with our friends and neighbours in North Dakota on that front,” Cullen said.

» tclarke@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @TylerClarkeMB