WESTLOCK - A St. Mary School student who tested positive for COVID-19 is scheduled to be back in class today following two weeks of self-isolation.
The student, whose name, age, gender and grade level won’t be released, will be rejoined by their classmates at the K-12 school Oct. 22 — the other students in the class were forced into self-isolation following the positive test.
SMS principal Vance Nakonechny was careful discussing the details, but noted the student contracted the virus in the community, not the school. As of Oct. 21 there are seven active COVID-19 cases within Westlock County.
“Once the student started having symptoms, they self-isolated and got their test. It wasn’t like the student was coming to school, waiting for their test, so it kind of worked the way it was supposed to. The self-isolation goes back to the date when the student was last in the school — it’s two weeks from that date,” said Nakonechny.
“So Oct. 21 is the last day. They (the other students) haven’t been in contact with that student in our building since Oct. 7.”
Due to the positive test the student’s teachers were also sent home and have continued teaching remotely.
“It’s not like they’re on a holiday. Our teachers self-isolated as well and were at home, but they are providing lessons … they’re providing sub plans for other courses because they have other grade levels they’re teaching. But they’re also providing remote learning for the remaining classmates, including the individual involved,” he explained.
Nakonechny says that so far the COVID-19 protocols they have in place have been working well due to excellent staff and student buy-in. Occupational Health and Safety have been recently making the rounds of area schools to ensure compliance with COVID-19 safety rules — see the full story on Page 33 of the Oct. 20 Town & Country This Week. So far, OHS officials haven’t been to SMS.
“They (OHS) haven’t been in our building. If we had had an outbreak (defined as two positive tests), then for sure they would have come and checked, but with an alert (defined as less than two positive cases) at this point … it’s speculation on my part, but maybe because it was a community-transmitted case, not school transmitted then maybe they’re thinking that we’re doing what we’re supposed to do,” said Nakonechny.
“In general our kids have been excellent in terms of following along with the hand sanitizing, the masks and the social distancing. They’re not perfect but they’re putting in a really good effort.”
