BSD implements additional health measures

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This article was published 17/01/2022 (1525 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon School Division will be implementing several protective measures to help control the spread of COVID-19 upon students’ return to in-person learning today.

A letter provided Friday to student families in the BSD details how the division will be navigating the latest wave of COVID-19. The letter was sent as a followup to a news release provided by Public Health and Manitoba Education on Thursday, Supt. Mathew Gustafson stated in the letter.

“In-class learning is our collective priority,” Gustafson said. “Public Health is adapting its case management approaches based on evolving evidence and experience in all sectors. The Public Health measures and guidance for schools will continue to be monitored and adjusted as needed. Hospitalization data will continue to be evaluated for children and adults.”

BSD school web pages will update morning and afternoon absenteeism rates daily — this will include an average absenteeism rate from September 2021 to December 2021 to provide a baseline rate.

“The difference between the daily rate and the average rate will provide some insight on the significance of the per cent absent,” Gustafson said.

These daily rates will remain on the web page to provide insights into potential trends, the percentages will reflect all absences including sickness, appointments, parental excused and unknown. Gustafson said these numbers should not be interpreted as a direct indicator of COVID risk.

As part of this attendance, the monitoring school will be watching for any unexpected increase in daily absences in comparison to the September to December average and will be watching the daily attendance for upward trends in absences.

Schools will be reporting to Public Health regarding concerns about reported COVID-19 cases or unexpected absenteeism.

“Cohort-specific attendance monitoring will be communicated directly to parents of students in the cohort when unusually high,” Gustafson said.

Schools may also place a class in temporary remote learning to investigate with Public Health — this may include a direction from Public Health to move a class to remote learning for up to one week and/or the implementation of a Rapid Antigen Test Program.

Rapid Antigen Testing for schools is in the process of being implemented, and additional details are expected at a later date.

For students in kindergarten to Grade 6, a one-time distribution of tests has been provided by the province and distributed by BSD. School staff who are symptomatic can access a test through employers and have been advised by Public Health they can return to work after having two negative tests 24 hours apart with their symptoms improving.

Staff will also continue to have access to the Fast Pass site in the city.

Public Health has changed the process for managing cases in schools and has asked divisions to implement a revised five-step process for managing cases in schools — monitoring information on cases and absenteeisms; reporting on absenteeism rates and reported cases in schools; completing alert forms to identify reported cases or absenteeism concerns; consulting with Public Health; and continuing to monitor the situation with Public Health.

An update on the situation in schools is expected to be provided by Gustafson today.

The Sun made multiple phone calls and sent multiple emails requesting an interview with BSD on Saturday and Sunday. No response was received by press time.

» The Brandon Sun