Manitoba health officials announced yet another round of restrictions for schools on Mother's Day. Schools in Brandon and Winnipeg will soon go to full remote learning, while schools elsewhere - including in the north - will see relatively minor changes.
Provincial education minister Cliff Cullen announced the changes along with Dr. Roussin May 9, adding changes to existing health orders regarding schools. While the most rigid new rules won’t apply to schools in northern Manitoba or Flin Flon, some of the changes will.
The biggest changes announced were for Manitoba’s two largest cities. As of May 12, all K-12 schools in Winnipeg and Brandon will move to full remote learning until May 30 at the earliest.
“While schools have done an excellent job of protecting staff and students throughout this pandemic, we see a great deal of community transmission right now. This community transmission is affecting schools, particularly in Winnipeg and in Brandon. Moving these schools to remote learning will help address some of that community transmission. We need to act now to break these transmission chains,” Roussin said during the May 9 briefing.
“While schools in Winnipeg and Brandon will move to remote learning, schools in other parts of Manitoba will be remaining open. Additional measures, though, will be implemented.”
Other schools throughout the province that have seen multiple cases from more than one household of people will be moved to remote learning as well. That rule will not, as of May 9, apply to any schools within the Flin Flon School Division (FFSD). While one case has been found at Hapnot Collegiate in the past three weeks, no further spread has been reported.
Only one northern Manitoba school - R.D. Parker Collegiate in Thompson - was in remote learning as of May 9. Six people at the school in the past three weeks have tested positive for COVID-19, including one case classified as a variant of concern. The school went into remote learning April 25 and was slated to continue through May 7.
All extracurricular activities and organized sports, as well as off-site activities, have been suspended except for physically distanced runs or walks. That policy will mean no change for the FFSD, which has not fully restarted extracurricular activities yet this school year.
One change will come for band and music programs - no singing or use of wind instruments will be allowed in Manitoba schools, effective May 12. Within the FFSD, music and band programs have been slowing moving ahead - plans are afoot to hold music and band classes outside, as was done within the division at the end of the 2019/20 school year.
The new rules also include allowing school officials to require students or staff with possible COVID-19 symptoms to stay home for 10 days and tell them to be tested - people living with someone waiting for COVID-19 test results are asked to isolate as well until a test result is received and plan accordingly once it comes back.
“Keeping schools safe and open for students and staff and families has been at the forefront of our COVID-19 response planning,” said Cullen.
“Our priority has been to have students in classrooms with face-to-face instruction to the greatest extent possible, since we know students learn best in this environment. We also know, however, that the rising COVID-19 numbers are presenting additional challenges, especially to our health system and to the safety of Manitobans.”
Students from Kindergarten-Grade 12 who are considered “high risk”, who have special needs or who do not have the means to participate in remote learning at home will be allowed to come to school in-person. As well, children of what the province has deemed “critical service workers” from Kindergarten-Grade 6 will be allowed to come to school if their parents cannot make other arrangements for their care and if they don’t need to self-isolate.
Child care facilities across Manitoba are slated to stay open, but kids taking part in remote learning are asked to not attend child care facilities during school hours.
Within most of Manitoba, teachers and school staff have only recently been listed as a priority group for receiving COVID-19 vaccines, with early childhood education workers still unlisted as of May 9. A proposal announced by the province earlier in May to have teachers drive to North Dakota to receive their shots was panned by education officials and teachers alike. Within northern Manitoba, anyone aged 18 and over who lives or works in the NHR, including teachers, is able to receive a first shot of COVID-19 vaccine.
