WESTLOCK – Before the widespread release of COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021, news that Westlock Elementary School was in the midst of a 10-plus COVID outbreak would have caused “more fear and concern” for not only parents and students, but teachers, support staff and Pembina Hills School Division admin.
And while the fact that WES was one of only two Alberta schools listed as “outbreak 10-plus” status on the province’s COVID-19 school status webpage is significant, Pembina Hills assistant Supt. of education services Mark Thiesen said they’re in a much different place to deal with the outbreak compared to 2020. As of Sunday, Nov. 28, WES had been downgraded to “alert status” with five to nine cases, while Barrhead Elementary School remained on “alert status” with two to four cases — the current outbreak status for all schools is available at www.alberta.ca/lookup/covid-19-school-status-map.aspx.
“Last school year the word 'outbreak' definitely had with it a lot more fear and concern because we had a lot less available to us to protect staff and students,” said Thiesen Nov. 26. “It’s apparent that this year’s situation is significantly different. Having so many people vaccinated has a huge impact on all the different layers of protection we already have in place.”
Thiesen pointed to a Nov. 26 release by the school division that states by January 2022, 94.3 per cent of all full-time, part-time and casual Pembina Hills employees will be fully vaccinated.
Breaking those numbers down further, 98.1 per cent of teachers will be fully vaccinated by January, while 91.3 per cent of support staff (program assistants, office admin, support services staff and bus drivers) will be as well. Meanwhile, 96 per cent of certified substitute teachers and 90.4 per cent of casual support staff will have both shots by 2022.
“Our staff is another layer of protection for one another and for the students. These vaccination numbers are a nice assurance and affirmation to the public that our kids are safe,” Thiesen added.
Business as usual at WES
A call to WES Friday morning confirmed that it was, for the most part, business as usual with kids, teachers and support staff all at work.
Thiesen said under “outbreak status” they follow guidelines provided by AHS and the provincial government, alert parents and encourage them to keep a closer eye on the health of their kids and “just tighten the knots a bit and snug up on the restrictions.”
“We no longer allow interschool sports and reduce intramurals unless they’re in cohorted groups which is fine. We don’t allow volunteers in the school and we generally lock the doors and keep them closed so we don’t have people wandering through,” he said.
“And then there’s enhanced cleaning during that time. It’s a heightened awareness and a few extra steps to make sure we get through this.”
Thiesen said for this most-recent alert at WES the COVID-19 positives were spread across a variety of different grades and age levels, meaning the response was a bit different compared to if they’d all have been in one class. And although he readily admits he’s not a contact tracer, he looked at the data and it didn’t “hint at transmission within the school.”
“When the numbers are in a particular grade or classroom that’s when things really change. If I can remember the stats off the top of my head, I believe it’s three students in a given classroom or grade within five days at the K-6 level,” said Thiesen, noting the rules change in Grades 7-12.
“So in that case the class would be sent home for at-home learning for a period of time.”
And while WES is off “outbreak status” it will remain on “alert status”, along with BES.
“Barrhead Elementary for instance was on outbreak for a long time this fall and it wasn’t because they had 10 cases constantly, in fact they were down to only a couple for the whole school for quite a while, but because they had exceeded the threshold of 10 and hadn’t been able to go 14 days without anything, they’d get one more and then it was another 14 days,” he concluded.
