In order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 throughout the division, Pembina Hills trustees passed a motion during their Nov. 12 meeting to suspend all extracurricular travel and competition between schools until further notice.
In other words, sports teams will still be allowed to hold practices provided they continue to follow the cohort guidelines established by Alberta Health.
Participation in extracurricular activities has been a frequent topic of discussion at Pembina Hills this fall, beginning with the division ‘s decision at the start of the year to limit extracurricular activities to one per student. (In other words, if you were on the school volleyball team, you couldn’t also play hockey.)
This restriction was based on the province’s Guidance for School Re-Entry document, which stated that if a student wished to switch between cohorts or mini-leagues, they should not participate in a new cohort activity for 14 days to prevent spreading the virus.
Following criticism by local business-owners, Pembina Hills sought out more conclusive guidance from the province. However, the situation has not changed.
“The more recent guidance (we received) in early November was quite clear in that they recommended school boards and other organizations do their best to limit the number of cohorts that students are a part of,” said Assistant Supt. of Education Services Mark Thiesen.
As such, that limit of one extracurricular activity per student is remaining in place for the time being.
Then on Oct. 28, trustees passed a motion cancelling all extracurricular activities at local schools for two weeks after a number of active COVID-19 cases were identified at R.F. Staples Secondary School, Westlock Elementary School, Eleanor Hall School in Clyde and Barrhead Composite High School.
As of Nov. 12, R.F. Staples School is still listed as being under watch by health officials due to having five or more cases, while Westlock Elementary School is listed as having an outbreak because of two to four cases. But there has been no further spread to other schools, possibly due to the suspension of extracurricular activities.
Thiesen said that outbreak in Westlock prompted the division to take a look at what they were doing and what could be done to prevent further spread of the virus.
Principals were asked to look at their programs and how they structured programming, and while they were directed to take actions like remove furniture from common areas, things were pretty solid.
Even so, all the principals resoundingly supported the idea of suspending travel/competition between schools for at least a couple of weeks “in order to get (COVID-19) numbers back down to zero in our schools,” Thiesen said.
So why not maintain the suspension on all extracurricular activities? Supt. David Garbutt said they understand that school sports are an important part of education for some students; in fact, the limit of one extracurricular activity per student had prompted some of them to avoid community activities in favour of, say, joining the school volleyball team.
Garbutt said they were aware of some students and staff who play sports that were chomping at the bit to plan for the future, and they wanted to put the brakes on that as soon as possible.
He also pointed to the Town of Westlock establishing a bylaw on Oct. 28 requiring face-coverings to be worn in public places as a reason to be pro-active.
“When we’re a little more confident that things have settled down, we’ll bring a further recommendation to you to hopefully start up (extracurricular sports) again somewhat,” Garbutt said.
Trustee Jackie Carson asked whether or not there was consideration to taking a more regional approach, like suspending extracurricular activities in Westlock but not in Swan Hills.
Garbutt said there was some discussion around that initially, but then administration’s worry was about how the virus could still potentially spread up to those communities without a restriction in place.
Thiesen added that from his perspective, the division is also in the business of teaching students how to properly respond to situations like these.
“I think they need to know that when something happens, you can’t just go, ‘Oh, that’s too bad’ and wait for the numbers to go down. You actually have to take action to reduce numbers,” he said.
Trustee Kerry McElroy asked if local administrators understood the difference between extracurricular activities and curricular activities taking place during the day, such as a trip out to the ski hill. (He noted that the impending opening of local ski hills was the reason for his inquiry.)
Thiesen said those type of activities are allowed during the day if there are buses and drivers available.
However, Pembina Hills is short on extra drivers right now, and “we want them driving their basic routes,” he said.
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