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ATHABASCA — The first week back to school after an extended Christmas break for Aspen View Public Schools saw absentee rates among students and teachers hovered near 25 per cent, but it's difficult to determine if those numbers are attributable to COVID-19.
Like every other school division across the province AVPS has been dealing with the challenges of staff and students returning after an extended Christmas break. On Dec. 30, Alberta minister of Education Adriana LaGrange announced the extended break with classes resuming Jan. 10 instead of Jan. 3, and that medical-grade masks and rapid test kits would be provided for all students.
At the Jan. 20 AVPS meeting, trustees got to see absentee numbers for support staff, teachers, and students from Jan. 10 to Jan. 18, after returning to their schools.
School support staff, from across the 10 schools in the division averaged 13.5 per cent with the highest day for absenteeism coming on Jan. 18 with 18 per cent. Teachers averaged 24 per cent absenteeism over the six days and the highest day was 27 per cent on Jan. 17.
“When we talk about absences, we cannot definitively say that those are COVID related absences,” said Supt. Neil O’Shea. “Particularly in our students because there's no requirement for anybody to report whether they're absent for COVID or not. Some of our staff absences could be that they have a doctor appointment. We don't know for sure because there is no requirement for them to disclose that information.”
Boyle School averaged an absentee rate of 25 per cent over the six-day period with the highest day Jan. 18 at 37 per cent. Edwin Parr Composite School averaged 23 per cent and had the highest rate of absentee Jan. 18 with 28 per cent.
Grassland School had 41 per cent absenteeism reported Jan. 18 and averaged 23 per cent over the six days. Landing Trail Intermediate School had its highest day Jan. 14 with 16 per cent missing and averaged 15.5 per cent for the six days. Rochester School also had the most missing students Jan. 14 with 23 per cent absent but averaged 12 per cent across the week and Whispering Hills Primary School averaged 16 per cent with their highest day being Jan. 18.
“One of the biggest challenges currently when we're in COVID is the number of staff that are sick from that and if we were unable to secure any supervision for students at school, whether it be EAs (educational assistants) or teachers we would need to shift to online learning,” O’Shea said.
It is a reality that many school boards do not have access to certificated substitute teachers and many of them have administrative policies (AP) for parent supervisors in classrooms, he added.
“We don't have an AP for that and yet it's time that we start to look at developing one,” he said. “In some of our schools for example, in Smith, they've been using that for a number of years. We just don't have an AP that directs that.”
Smith School has a list of community members who are willing to stand in as classroom supervisors in the event a substitute teacher can’t be found.
Trustee Donna Cherniwchan asked if there was still a threshold compelling a school division to move to online learning.
“It is strictly based on whatever criteria individual school boards want to make,” said O’Shea. “Although (Alberta Education) has made the decision that it's up to individual school boards to decide when they want to shift online, they've removed any thresholds provincewide.”
Chair Candy Nikipelo added any decision to move online will not be based on student absences.
“It's not going to be based on student absences,” she said. “It's most definitely on staff absences, if we go online.”
She added a thank you to all staff and administration from the central office and schools for working hard to keep staff and students safe and in school.
“Thank you, again, senior admin, admin within our schools, our teachers,” said Nikipelo. “Everybody is doing what they can to keep our learning in-house, in our schools, because we all know that is the most positive thing but if we need to shift, we are fully prepared to do that.”
O'Shea went on to inform trustees the masks and test kits arrived Jan. 7 and were sent home with students Jan. 14.
“We chose to get them delivered to one central location and then we chose to distribute them on our own to each of the schools,” O’Shea said. “I think from what I'm hearing from my colleagues, that was a wise decision.”
He added another school division chose to have the masks and kits sent directly to their 15 schools and only four had received the masks on time.
“A whole bunch of ... people spent last Thursday (Jan. 13) over in our warehouse, bagging the masks because they don't come ready for distribution; we had to do that,” he said. “I think they spent seven hours over there ... making sure that everything was delivered and ready to go to schools for last Friday (Jan. 14).
O’Shea added school administrators have noticed they are still handing out masks at a high volume even though students were given masks as they are often forgotten or lost.
“We're finding that kids don't always have masks with them,” he said. “So, even though the government has provided masks, we're still distributing a high number of masks because I think the accessibility of them now students are saying well, they're everywhere and they're free.”
AVPS has also placed an order for N-95 masks for staff, two each, as an added layer of protection if they choose to use it.
“They would not be mandatory, but we felt that that would be another way that we can support our staff by ordering some N-95 masks,” he said.
