45 current COVID cases in Lethbridge School Division

“What happens when a student tests positive, that means the entire class is quarantined as well as some staff members. As an outcome of that, we have approximately 80 staff who are in quarantine and isolation and approximately 1,000 students who are in quarantine and in isolation,” says Gilmore.

The division is home to approximately 12,000 students, meaning just over eight per cent are forced to stay at home.

Unlike Holy Spirit’s St. Francis Junior High, the Lethbridge School Division has no plans to put entire schools into online-only learning.

Gilmore explained that students and staff alike are greatly impacted when classes are shut down so they are doing their best to mitigate that.

“That’s difficult for families – it requires a lot of flexibility and it requires that the family’s making sacrifices, whether it be going to work or some other kinds of things.”

The Lethbridge School Division has, however, temporarily made Grade 8 classes at Wilson Middle School all-digital. At Galbraith Elementary, grades K-2 and 3-5 are alternating online and in-person classes every week.

Gilmore says she has seen no substantial changes in student outcomes when they are forced to go back-and-forth with little notice.

“I have to say, our staff have been amazing in pivoting quickly from at-school face-to-face learning to at-home online learning and I commend their increasing ability and their finesse with being able to do that.”

At the end of the day, the superintendent says she understands that many people are tired of dealing with the pandemic a full year in, but if parents and students want more stability in their school schedules, “if we could just get things tamed down a bit in Lethbridge, that would be really helpful.”

by David Opinko

45 current COVID cases in Lethbridge School Division

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