Raymond High School (Google Maps image)

By Justin Goulet

Positive COVID-19 case confirmed at Raymond High School

Sep 8, 2020 | 11:38 AM

RAYMOND, AB – Classes are continuing following the diagnosis of a positive COVID-19 case at Raymond High School.

Westwind School Division superintendent Darren Mazutinec told Lethbridge News Now that he received a call from Alberta Health Services (AHS) on Sunday, Sept. 6 confirming that a student at the school had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

“This is our first time and one of the first times in the province, since school hasn’t been back very long. I was very impressed with how efficient and effective Alberta Health Services was,” he said.

“They informed me that we had a positive [case], they came in and did all contact tracing.”

Mazutinec said only one student contracted the virus and parents were notified of the positive case.

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“We sent a letter out immediately with the help of AHS on Sunday afternoon, to all parents. My phone and email have been pretty quiet, so I think parents appreciated it and hopefully they sent their students back to us this morning [Sept. 8] for class.”

He added that AHS would contact those who were considered close contacts of the patient. Classes were not disrupted, and school operations are continuing as normal.

A notice was also posted to the Raymond High School website.

Mazutinec said the opening week of classes last week was an overall success.

“We had a great first week [even with] all the fear and apprehension, uncertainty with COVID,” he said.

“We were fearing the worst and hoping for the best and we got better than expected. We had a great opening week and I was proud of our staff, our admin teams and our students. They did great.”

DIVISION-WIDE

Mazutinec added that across the entire Westwind School Division, the start of the educational year has gone smoothly.

“I visited all the schools in our division except two, so 12 got visited last week by me personally, and a great start. Principals supported the nice, relaxed opening, [and] compliance with the directives on the health order and like I said, it was a great week last week and we’re hoping for things to continue moving forward,” he told LNN.

“Even with this small glitch for this one student, we have been told by AHS to continue with our normal opening as they’ve liked our plan and our compliance and we’re happy with where we’re at right now.”

In recent days, four other schools in southern Alberta have sent letters to parents informing them of a positive case of COVID-19.

Those schools are Bridlewood School, St. Angela School and Lester B. Pearson High School in Calgary, as well as Lawrence Grassi Middle School in Canmore.

No other cases of COVID-19 have been reported at schools in the Westwind School Division.