Students, staff and visitors will be required to wear masks while indoor any school within the two Prince Albert school divisions. (File photo/paNOW)

By Dawson Thompson

Local Back to School Plan

Prince Albert school divisions announce mandatory masking indoors

Aug 24, 2021 | 5:28 PM

Students in Prince Albert and area can add masks back to their school supply lists as they prepare for a return to the classroom.

The Prince Albert Catholic School Division (PACSD) and the Saskatchewan Rivers Public School Division (SRPSD) released a joint statement on their safe back to school plan and it includes mandatory masking indoors for all staff and students, visitors and on school buses. Masks will not be required for outdoor activities.

“After review of information regarding vaccination rates and data regarding case rates for both vaccinated and unvaccinated [persons], and after discussing this with public heath officials it will be mandated to have Pre-K to Grade 12 staff and students wearing masks indoors,” said PACSD education director Lorel Trumier.

The release said the added layer of protection provided by masks indoors will allow extracurricular clubs, sports, and activities to resume with appropriate protocols and enable parents to return to some in-person connections in schools.

Trumier added students will not have to wear masks during recess, while eating lunch, and in natural occurrences like drinking water.

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The 2021-22 Safe Schools Plan, released by the provincial government earlier this month did not make masks, cohorts and distancing mandatory. They left it up to individual school divisions but did recommend that children under 12 and those who are unvaccinated wear masks. Earlier Tuesday, Saskatchewan NDP leader Ryan Meili called the government’s back to school plan ‘negligent.’

The details in each school division’s plan will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.

“I anticipate that certainly over the month of September we will keep it as status-quo,” Trumier said.

The division said revisions to the plan will consider the ‘experiences of students, families, staff and rely on local health advice and data related to transmission risk, COVID-19 case rates, vaccine rates, and local epidemiological evidence.’

If a hybrid or remote learning approach is needed, schools have contingency plans in place and both divisions encouraged families to prepare for that possibility.

Individual schools will be sharing details with families about back-to-school routines and other details in their school-based learning plan in the coming days.

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Dawson.Thompson@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @dawsonthompson8