Francophone school division high schools temporarily close

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This article was published 03/11/2020 (2101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

IN the span of five days, the province’s French-language school division has shuttered its two Winnipeg high schools amidst COVID-19 outbreaks — forcing nearly 1,000 students to temporarily study at home.

Collège Louis-Riel and Centre Scolaire Léo-Rémillard are two of the first schools in the province to announce temporary closures during the 2020-21 academic year.

On Oct. 28, the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine announced the former, where eight cases have been identified, was temporarily closing until Nov. 9 to protect staff and students in St. Boniface.

An announcement about the latter, where the positive case count is now 16, was made Nov. 1. The school in southeast Winnipeg is expected to reopen Nov. 12.

The province’s COVID-19 exposure website indicates public health supports the decisions.

Neither decision, however, was made lightly, said Alain Laberge, superintendent of the DSFM.

“The fact is that we were seeing a lot of students isolated because they could’ve been close contact(s) and we didn’t want to take any chances or any risk,” Laberge said during a phone call Tuesday.

Growing numbers of affected cohorts and subsequent substitute shortages, in addition to suspected community transmission at Léo-Rémillard, prompted the proactive closures, he said — adding only two cases are believed to have been acquired at school.

Since the academic year started, there have been five school outbreaks — which the province defines as transmission between two or more people within a school — in Manitoba. Among those affected: John Pritchard School (River East Transcona School Division); Arborgate School (Seine River); Bird’s Hill School (River East Transcona); Collège Louis-Riel and Centre Scolaire Léo-Rémillard (DSFM).

While the province’s top doctor, Dr. Brent Roussin has applauded Manitoba schools for keeping case counts low, he has repeatedly said a spike in COVID-19 in the community inevitably leads to more cases at school.

As of Tuesday, all schools in the province are under a restricted level (code orange), which emphasizes two metres of physical distancing and expanded remote options for families.

Meantime, the province’s largest division has started asking parents to ensure their children’s school is aware if they are a “critical service worker.”

The Winnipeg School Division put out alerts on social media Tuesday, informing families of the definitions of workers who fall into Tier 1, which includes health-care workers, teachers and first responders, and Tier 2, a category that lists grocery store staff, critical infrastructure employees and people who work in food processing, among other jobs.

Betty Edel, chairwoman of the WSD board, said the division is simply preparing for what could come.

If the province were to move schools to the critical phase (code red), K-12 schools could be closed for in-class learning, except for students enrolled in kindergarten through Grade 6, whose parents are essential workers.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie