School divisions throughout Saskatchewan are dealing with the challenges being presented by the Omicron variant of COVID-19. There have been record number of ab-confirmed cases reported by the province, and it has been impacting everything from staffing levels in schools to the attendance of children.  

Here in the southeast, the two main school divisions, the Holy Family Roman Catholic Separate School Division and the South East Cornerstone Public School Division, have been trying their best to keep up with the challenges presented by the wave.  

The Director of Education for HFRCSSD, Gwen Keith, used an analogy of it being like buying a new piece of technology, only to find out it has been outdated by the time you leave the store. 

“Same thing here with these variants,” Keith explained. “You get a new variant, and some of your practices in the past are outdated because you‘ve got to rejig about what the perceived impact of the new variant is.” 

For the SECPSD, they have been working to keep as many students in the classroom as possible, although there have been some challenges at times. 

“Certainly, everyone’s working very hard to maintain our service, and we’re really thankful to the staff, and students and all the parents for understanding and co-operation as we work through this,” stated Lynn Little, the Director of Education for SECPSD.  

There have been some hiccups along the way, in particular when it comes to the attendance of both staff and students. With new guidelines issued by the provincial government earlier this month in terms of testing and isolation, the school divisions are doing what they can to ensure a safe environment for those who are in their facilities, be it staff or students.  

Keith pointed out that testing has been a key part of keeping tabs on things within HFRCSSD. 

“These rapid tests become key for staff and families to use, and so we want to make sure that those stocks are available to both families and staff,” she told Discover Weyburn.  

Those who test positive are to self-isolate for either five- or ten-day, or 48 hours after symptoms subside, depending on their vaccination status. This rule has seen some impacts happen for the SECPSD, with students moving to remote learning. 

“All of those classes have moved to remote not due to staff shortage; those classes have moved to remote because we’ve had a number of individuals, maybe students and staff in those classes, that have been positive,” Little said to describe the situation within her division. 

Within the public division, work is being done to provide as much coverage as possible for staff who are out due to COVID-19. This includes having substitute teachers and EA’s helping to cover the classes.  

“We’re absolutely thankful for our support staff who are able to assist us, but there is a limit to how much can occur, and what will occur,” Little added, noting that the support staff helping to cover a class aren’t able to teach new materials or handle assessments such as tests. 

The separate division is also working on plans to ensure they can keep students in the classroom as much as possible. 

“If the disruption happens to be in the central office, or in school x and y, what’s the succession plan and what are the plans to pivot, so we really pride ourselves in continuing to provide face to face service,” Keith stated.