The Government of Alberta has developed steps and benchmarks for easing restrictions for businesses and individuals while protecting the health-care system. Currently, plans are in place to move to Step 1 on February 8, 2021.
For schools, the following changes will come into place on February 8, 2021:
- Children’s sport and performance activities are permitted if related to school activities, such as physical education classes.
- K-12 schools and post-secondary institutions are allowed to use off-site facilities to support curriculum-related educational activities.
- Group or team sports are NOT permitted. At this time, no sports games, competitions, team practice, league play or group exercise of any kind is allowed.
For more information about the Government of Alberta's plans regarding the easing of health measures, visit their "Stronger public health measures" webpage.
In the meantime, please be reminded that, as is outlined in our Guidelines for Maintaining Safe & Healthy Schools in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic:
- Our students will continue to be grouped in cohorts.
This means that our administrators will create groups of students and staff who stay together throughout the day as much as possible. This will minimize exposure to other individuals and reduce the likelihood of spreading any possible viruses.
- Our buildings remain “closed campuses.”
This means that, in order to ensure we abide by regulations such as appropriate social distancing, we will ask all visitors to make an appointment ahead of time and complete a health screening prior to entering the building. A record of all visitors will be kept for contact tracing purposes.
- Field Trips are restricted.
Field trips that require students to ride on a bus are postponed. Further, all international and national field trips for the 2020/2021 are suspended due to the uncertainty and risks associated with travel during COVID- 19. Overnight trips remain suspended. At this time, virtual field trips, classroom field trips or socially distanced community walking trips are able to occur with the appropriate safety measures in place.