Students will be obliged to wear masks and sit in family groups while being transported in school buses beginning in early September.
Those are two of the measures contained in the updated ‘Return-to-school’ plans posted on the Prairie Spirit School Division (PSSD) and Greater Saskatoon Catholic Schools (GSCS) Division websites on Wednesday, August 26.
The school divisions, which share school bus vehicles and routes in Warman and Martensville, have adopted transportation policies aimed at preventing the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus.
A survey of parents in the Prairie Spirit School Division in early August indicated that 90% of parents will be sending their children to school when classes begin after Labour Day. But while many parents will drive their kids in private vehicles, that’s not an option for everyone, according to PSSD Director of Education Lori Jeschke.
“One of the questions on our survey to parents was, ‘will you drive your child to school?’ because the Premier and Minister of Education had suggested parents do that if they can,” said Jeschke in an interview August 25. “We asked parents what their plans were, and we based our policy on those responses.”
Jeschke said school buses will have seating charts, just as they have in past years. However, she added, this year will be different because siblings will be seated together.
“We need a seating chart so we know where students are sitting in order to have contact tracing,” said Jeschke. “Usually the pattern is, Pre-Kindergarten at the front of the bus, and older students toward the back. Grade 11 and 12 students usually get the back of the bus.
“But this year that may not be the case, because family groups will sit together.”
Jeschke said students will also be required to wear masks because physical distancing on the bus is simply not possible.
“Our bus drivers will have a mask or a shield, whichever they choose to wear; and there will be hand sanitizer on the buses,” said Jeschke.
She added the buses will also be thoroughly sanitized by drivers between runs once the students have left the bus.
Because the public school division is sharing buses with the Catholic division schools in Warman and Martensville, there has been close cooperation and communication between the school divisions on the transportation protocols, she said. The policy is also in line with the Saskatoon Public School Division.
Jeschke said the ‘soft start’ to the school year implemented by the PSSD beginning September 8 is aimed at alleviating anxiety for both students and teachers, and providing an opportunity for everyone to learn the new safety protocols in the school environment.
“Parents who responded to our survey told us they had concerns about safety and cleanliness in the buildings,” said Jeschke. “We care about the students and their families, so we are taking our guidance from the health experts.”
She said that the school division has continually updated its plans based on weekly communications with the Ministry of Education and Saskatchewan Health Authority. But the reality is that at some point, somewhere, a case of COVID-19 is likely to crop up in spite of all the precautions.
She said if a student develops symptoms at home, they should not come to school.
Jeschke said that in the event a student shows symptoms of COVID-19 during the day at school, teachers and administrators will follow a protocol that involves contacting the parents to take the student home. The school division will notify the health authority, but will not release that information to the community.
There are privacy concerns,” said Jeschke. “As an example, if someone in a school gets lice, we don’t broadcast that. We have a protocol and procedures on how we respond to communicable diseases, and COVID-19 is a communicable disease. Our job is to report it to the health authorities and then they take it from there.”
She said the schools in the PSSD area will not be testing for COVID-19 at this time.