BSD under yellow-level precautions: Casavant

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/08/2020 (2011 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brandon School Division’s board of trustees took time out of their Monday meeting to clarify the fact that, as of right now, they are operating under the yellow “caution” threat-level that’s outlined in the province’s new Pandemic Response System.

This is despite the fact that the Prairie Mountain Health region, as a whole, is adhering to the orange “restricted” threat-level as of Monday, which makes public mask wearing mandatory and caps public gatherings at 10 people.

BSD Supt. Marc Casavant mentioned during Monday’s meeting that this isn’t a matter of the school division going rogue, and they are actually taking direction from the province on this matter.

“I’ll be honest, when we heard the announcement (about the Pandemic Response System) we were under the assumption that the orange alert meant that everything was under that,” he said. “But what we’re understanding now, in correspondence from the (education) department, that the Prairie Mountain Health region has been put under that, but education will be directed a little bit later before school starts.”

Talking to the Sun following Monday’s meeting, Casavant went on to clarify that the BSD’s re-opening plan hasn’t changed from its Aug. 14 announcement.

This means that students from kindergarten to Grade 8 will spend each day in school, with some changes due to the pandemic.

High school students, however, will have 50 per cent of their classes in-person at school and 50 per cent through remote learning.

Even though BSD released a followup document last Thursday that outlined back-to-school plans under threat-level orange, Casavant clarified that that document was only meant to highlight what operating under that status could look like.

“As of today, we’re yellow,” Casavant confirmed after Monday’s meeting. “Any time after today, they could tell us that we’re moving to a different colour.”

However, the superintendent went on to say that the BSD is ready and capable of moving to threat level orange if the province requires it, since they’ve been prepping for such a fluid scenario for months.

“On June 1, when the government announced that we would be coming back in the fall, they also noted that we had to be prepared to operate under three different scenarios,” Casavant said. “So since June 1, we’ve been working on the different scenarios and being able to activate them so we can fluidly move from one to the other when they tell us that we have to.”

To add to the confusion, Casavant said the different threat levels could be applied to different BSD schools depending on the unique circumstances that emerge once classes begin on Sept. 8.

“We could be operating with a school that could operate under one colour and all the rest are under another colour,” he said.

On the subject of masks, Casavant said that while wearing this kind of personal protective equipment is required when riding the bus, he revealed that Grade 4-12 students can remove masks in class if they can maintain physical distancing from others.

“They’re mandatory to wear when you can’t socially distance yourself properly,” he said. “If they are socially distanced properly, they can take the masks off.”

Monday marked the last time the BSD’s board of trustees will be formally gathering until Sept. 8, when they will be holding their inaugural board meeting of the 2020-21 school year at 9:30 a.m.

The trustees’ next regular board meeting after that will take place on Sept. 14 at 7:30 p.m.

Until then, Casavant wanted to thank all of their local educators for bearing with them during these unprecedented times.

“The plan’s not perfect, per se,” he said. “But it certainly allows us to start to look at re-opening schools and having a fluid approach to being able to adapt to changes that may occur.”

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson